Farmers’ Bill 2020: What Can We as Youths Do?

I had the opportunity to attend a youth group meeting discussing about the Farmers’ Bill of 2020 today. The key question that was raised in that group was – ‘What can we as youths do to help the cause of the farmers, sitting at home?’

When the discussion was unfolding, I also started thinking, what can I do to help the cause of the farmers in our country, sitting in front of my laptop, desperately trying to finish my assignments!

Here are a few things I came up with. All of them are up for debate and deliberation –

1.      Initiate discussions: Today a group of twenty odd people could meet in the session, trying to understand the implications of the Bill. Now, if this group of people, belonging to various social groups could spread awareness about the insights they gained during the session. The twenty would multiply to forty to eighty and so on.

I guess this is where social media acts as a great tool. If instead of posting about our food menus for the day, we could spread more information about the things happening around us, the world would be a kinder place.

And if you doubt the power of social media in bringing effective change, I recommend you check out this page https://www.instagram.com/actionaid_india/ 

This is just one of the organizations that spreads awareness and even raises funds for important causes by mere social media advocacy.

2.      Generate New Perspectives: Most of the people in the youth group I met today were college-going students. The untapped potential that a college student can unleash is immense yet hidden like an undiscovered diamond.

You could be a medical student or a mechanical engineer wondering how the knowledge of your field could help the farmers today. Well, if we as college students could start talking about the inter-sectionality of subjects taught in universities to real life issues, the level of innovation would be insurmountable.

Now, can we as a student initiate a conversation about the farmers cause in our class? And then discuss how we as budding professionals can contribute to making the situation better.

Physical agitation and protest might not be something we could do, but can we contribute in any other way? This is the question we need to ask ourselves.

The onus of this lies more on students intimately related with the cause, budding psychologists, social workers, economists, business administrators. Where are we when the world around us is wailing?

3.      Write to the Authorities: Did you know that we as citizens of this country are entitled to give our opinion about the proceedings by the Government? Sounds cliché right? Well no, I am not kidding. Will you believe if I say that the Government is seeking our suggestions for Budget 2021-22? No seriously, check this out - https://www.mygov.in/home/poll/ If we chose to explore, there are so many platforms where the citizens can systematically raise their voices for the authorities to hear.

Every time a bill is proposed to be passed, there is a time span given for citizens to go through the clauses and give their comments. Now that is something worth exploring. 

Also whenever you get time, check this website out too - https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/interact-with-honble-pm/

Remember the letters to the editor we would practise to write in schools? Guess what; try writing them in real life. Who knows who might get inspired by what you say.

4.     Be creative: If you are an artist of any kind, art is the best way to raise awareness and bring about an attitudinal change in the society. What if your song gets as famous as ‘rasode mein kaun tha?’ and becomes the anthem for the protesting farmers!

How else do you think poems like ‘Sarfaroshi ki tammanna’ got famous?

5.     Pray about it: Human thought is the most powerful thing in this world and prayers are the epitome of  this thought. If prayer seems to religiously connotated for you, I recommend you keep the core issue burning inside your heart. Because only if it burns inside us will we ever try to douse the fire.

I am not sure if I overwhelmed you. But this is all I wished to say today – identify your core skill/talent, see how that can contribute to causes that you are passionate about, think about how your profession relates to the problem and how you can discuss and develop tangible steps towards making the situation better. And most importantly, know that each one of us is capable of moving mountains – only if we have a little faith in ourselves and the world’s potential to become a better place.