Lockdown-hit labour edgy as farm stir rages

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, September 28

Having suffered job loss due to the Covid-induced lockdown recently, a large number of factory workers, who had started working as farm labourers, are once again a harried lot.

Prakash and Ranju Devi, both natives of Bihar, had started working in the fields of BKU (Doaba) president Manjit Rai in Hoshiarpur after the factory they were employed with shut due to the lockdown.

Now once again, they find themselves faced with a similar situation in view of the farmers’ agitation against the recently passed farm legislations. They feel if the farmers suffered, they would also have to face the consequences.

Disho (55) also lost her job as a peon in a school due to the lockdown and started working in the fields of Gurtej Singh of Shahkot block. “Employment worries are back to haunt her again. Yesterday, she asked me what would she do if farmers faced hardship,” Singh said.

Moosapur farmer and BKU (Doaba) member Kirpal Singh said, “The agitation is worrying labourers. They have started asking what they will do if it does not end.”