Nearly 40,000 women heading for Delhi protest: farmer unions

Nearly 40,000 women protesters are set to join the Delhi morcha from different parts of Punjab ahead of International Women’s Day, farmer unions claimed on Saturday.

 

Most of them will begin their journey on Sunday morning.

 

To ensure maximum participation, tractor marches are again being organised in most of districts of Punjab.

 

In Barnala, most of the tractors were driven by women on Friday, while in Bathinda, it was a mix of men and women driving the tractors.

 

“A number of women are busy with their children because of their final exams and hence, a number of them will return to Punjab on March 9 while few others will stay back. Hundreds of women will be going from Mansa on Sunday morning,” said Balbir Kaur, state committee member of the women’s wing of BKU (Dakaunda).

 

BKU (Ugrahan) has the largest women’s wing among all farm organisations.

 

Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, general secretary of BKU (Ugrahan), said, “They will leave by 500 buses, 600 mini-buses, 115 trucks/ canters and 200 small vehicles on Sunday morning. Thousands will reach Tikri border the same night so as to be part of women’s day celebrations.”

 

Jagmohan Singh, general secretary of BKU (Dakaunda), said, “Our senior team of BKU (Dakaunda) will remain close to the stages… the programmes will be run mostly by women.”

 

Jagmohan said they have asked all the speakers not to use any provocative language while giving speeches. “We need not deviate from the issues,” he said.