500,000 Indian Farmers to Pursue for Nationwide Protests against Reforms

Indian farmers are against to reforms they say that threaten their livelihoods aim to renew their pressure on against the changes with nationwide protests on Monday, a year after laws on the liberalization of the farming sector were introduced.
For 10 months, tens of thousands of farmers have camped out on major highways around the capital, New Delhi, to oppose the laws in the longest-running growers' protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
Rakesh Tikait, a prominent farmers' leader, told Reuters that "Thousands of farmers have spread out to different districts to ensure a complete nationwide strike aimed at reminding the government to repeal the laws introduced to favour large private corporations."

This month, it was seen that more than 500,000 farmers attended a rally in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, the biggest yet in the protest campaign, to step up pressure on Modi's administration to revoke the laws.
The government says the reforms mean new opportunities and better prices for farmers. Farming sustains almost half of India's more than 1.3 billion people and accounts for about 15% of the $2.7 trillion economy.
Farmer union leaders say their protests would not disrupt any emergency services.

Tikait also added that they will also make sure that the strike remains peaceful.

©Photo: NARINDER NANU/AFP