Farmers March Documentation

Indian farmers suffer from a depleting water table, depressed food prices, and inflated interest on loans. “Half of India’s population works on farms, but farming contributes only 15% to the country’s GDP. …Indian farmers also struggle with debt owed to banks and money lenders. And crop failures trigger farm suicides with alarming frequency. At least 300,000 farmers have killed themselves since 1995.” [See India Farmers: Tens of Thousands March Against Agrarian Crisis, BBC, 30.Nov.2018.]

Funded by the MurthyNAYAK Foundation, eleven alumni (ten photographers and a videographer) of the photography program at the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication (SACAC) were asked to station themselves at specific points across Delhi during the days of the march (29-30 Nov 2018) for comprehensive coverage of the event. India’s farmers are in crisis – a situation that has been growing more dire over recent decades.

The march, organized by the All-India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, proceeded towards the parliament with demands for a special joint session on the crisis. Named the Kisan Mukti March, or Farmers’ Freedom March, farmers and surviving wives and daughters of farmers forced to suicide were joined by other sympathetic citizens, all believing that the time for a productive conversation on the matter is long overdue.

The MurthyNAYAK Foundation funded the SACAC alumni, who worked in association with eminent journalist, P. Sainath and PARI (People’s Archive of Rural India; an organization founded by P. Sainath), to contribute to the documentation of the Farmers’ Freedom March. For two days, the selected SACAC alumni walked with the farmers to document the march. They spent time with the farmers at Ramlila Maidan and at the night camps. They posted photos and videos on social media platforms in real time, updating and urging fellow citizens to march in solidarity with the farmers of the country.

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