From the start, India has been an agricultural country. While we had to import grains and other necessary food items from abroad after getting independence, in the last seven decades, India has become self-sufficient in most of the food items that can be grown in the country.
The farmers toil day and night so that we can eat good food. That is why the second Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri gave the “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan” slogan. Every year National Farmer’s Day or Kisan Diwas is celebrated in India on December 23 to pay respect to the hard work that our farmers put in agriculture and making the country self-sufficient in food.
Most of the celebrations are centered on Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh as these are the major Indian states where farmers actively are involved in agriculture.
Kisan Diwas celebrated on Chaudhary Charan Singh’s birth anniversary
December 23 is the birth anniversary of Chaudhary Charan Singh, the fifth Prime Minister of India who was also a well-known Kisan leader. He came up with various publications on farmers that also depicted the difficulties they had to face.
Charan Singh also made many important suggestions so that the lives of the farmers across India can be improved. He also took the initiative to launch many farmer welfare programmes and that is why the Indian government started celebrating Kisan Diwas or National Farmer’s Day on his birth anniversary from 2001 onwards.
In today’s context, common people must be made aware of the hardships and plights that the farmers face. Natural disasters ruin the farms and the farmers have to face a huge loss. While government aids are available they are not sufficient. In the last more than a decade, the number of deaths due to suicide of farmers has been on the rise.
With the advancement in technology, the farmers in villages who have been practicing the same old-age techniques of farming must be trained so that they can earn better and their quality of life improves.