Punjab’s agriculture depends heavily on migrant workers, and the state will face more challenges without them. In reaction to a campaign to drive out migrant workers, farmer leader Baldev Singh Damheri made this declaration.
A migrant worker in the Hoshiarpur district recently committed a horrific crime against a child, which sparked outrage throughout India. A movement to force migrant workers, particularly farm laborers, to leave the state was then started by some citizens in Punjab’s cities and villages.
Baldev Singh Damheri, senior vice president of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (Sher-e-Punjab), responded to a question concerning the “Bhaiya Bhagaao” (oust the brothers) campaign by denouncing the crime and saying that criminals should be punished as severely as possible via fast-track courts.
Punjab’s farmers will face serious difficulties in agriculture and allied industries without migrant workers, he said, adding that it is incorrect to believe that all of them are criminals. He stated that the majority of the Punjabi farmworkers in the area do not engage in tasks such as harvesting and peeling sugarcane, gathering straw during the wheat season, or dairy farming. Punjabi farmers rely significantly on foreign workers for these jobs.
He proposed making it mandatory for all migrant workers or businesspeople to go through police verification to make sure they don’t have a criminal record in order to solve the problem of crimes committed by some migrants.
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