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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Stubble burning and pollution: It is a deeper question of the dignity and identity of farmers - Poonam Pandey, Govert Valkenburg, Annapurna Mamidipudi and Wiebe Bijker

Stubble burning and pollution: It is a deeper question of the dignity and identity of farmers - Poonam Pandey, Govert Valkenburg, Annapurna Mamidipudi and Wiebe Bijker

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published Published on Oct 27, 2017   modified Modified on Oct 27, 2017
-Hindustan Times

How is it that farmers, who were celebrated as national heroes and saviors of the country after the Green Revolution, are now criminalised and called irresponsible? If they are feeding the nation, isn’t the problem of stubble burning a collective responsibility?

Attempts by a range of agencies to address the issue of stubble burning in Punjab have repeatedly failed. We suggest that this is not only because we’ve missed the key explanation of the problem but also because of a far deeper cultural issue: the question of what it means to be a farmer.

We contend that it is impossible to solve the issue of stubble burning, unless we pay proper attention to the way farming communities are organised, circulate knowledge, and produce value while retaining their dignity. Only when alignment with these cultural values is addressed, can one address stubble burning as a problem of health and environmental damage.

This is not to deny the reality of the stubble burning problem. The air quality in cities such as Delhi is deteriorating with each passing day due to multiple factors including rapid and unplanned urbanisation, increasing number of cars and population growth. This gets worse with bursting of Diwali firecrackers in Delhi and the burning of straw after harvest in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Satellite images and scientific data confirm that smoke from burning fields in Punjab deteriorate the air quality in Delhi in the month of October and November.

This has enabled news agencies, citizen charters, government bodies and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to find a common culprit – the farmer. Unaware of these developments in the elite quarters of Delhi, farmers in Punjab and Haryana only came to know about the problem when they were threatened with fines and imprisonment. Reactions from farmers ranged from letting the straw rot in one corner of their fields to protesting and defying government regulations.

The question of farmers’ dignity and identity is a common thread in all these reactions. How is it that farmers, who were celebrated as national heroes and saviors of the country after the Green Revolution, are now criminalised and called irresponsible? If they are feeding the nation, isn’t the problem of stubble burning a collective responsibility? Aren’t all of us culprits, then?

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Hindustan Times, 27 October, 2017, http://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/stubble-burning-and-pollution-it-is-a-deeper-question-of-the-dignity-and-identity-of-farmers/story-hNBALpZguwsUyDUu8nuCiO.html


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