Thread by @TheRusticMystic

Article from last year. Upper caste Sikhs dominate land ownership in Punjab. Dalit, who are 32% in numbers, own just 3.5% land. Yet the highest land ownership in India is in Punjab. The Punjab closet is full of skeletons. #FarmLaws #FarmBills #Punjab
mybs.in/2X8K01w

Excerpts : In Punjab, upper castes, mostly Jat Sikhs, dominate the farming landscape. Only 3.5% of private farm land belongs to Dalits who make up 32% of the population, according to the Agriculture Census of 2015-16.

"Punjab has the maximum proportion (5.28%) of big farmers owning more than 10 hectares of land among all non-mountainous states of India. The national average is 0.57%, according to the Agriculture Census 2015-16"

"Even though we knew that the land is ours, we could not claim it,” said Avtar Singh, 65, a resident of Niyamatpur village of Sangrur district, who spent most of his life working on lands of big farmers. +

“Many of us were unlettered, unorganised and scared of going against the landlords who were our only source of income, food and fodder,”

Around 68% of agricultural labourers get loans from big farmers, mostly at high interest rates, according to a 2017 study, 'Indebtedness among farmers and agricultural labourers in rural Punjab’.

Sexual exploitation is one of the most critical threats for women labourers, most of whom are Dalits, found a recent study, 'Socio Economic Conditions and Political Participation of Rural Women Labourers in Punjab’.

Dark secrets of #UdtaPunjab nobody wants to speak about. From oppression of #Dalits to #SexualExploitation of women, no activist or feminist takes up their cause. The new #FarmLaws empower the small farmers, freeing them to earn more, and hence change the status quo.

Something the big landowners, the Jat Sikhs, the middlemen, the politicians, the Kaneda hopefuls, the Khalistanis don't want. Money means power, Range Rovers & BMWs, Music albums & movies, and fuel for the pipe dream called Khalistan. #FarmLaws2020 #FarmBills2020 #Punjab