Farmers say new farm laws bigger threat than coronavirus

New Delhi: The shadow of the pandemic looms large and experts warn their agitation could well be a COVID-19 superspreader but farmers, some in masks and many without them, protesting in Delhi and at gateways into the city say the new farm laws pose a greater threat to their survival.

As thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana but also from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, protest at the national capital's border points and in north Delhi's Burari ground for the fifth day on Monday, COVID-19 continues its spread.

There have been few signs of social distancing during the protests that started last week with the farmers, banded under various organisations, leaving their homes and moving towards Delhi.

"A protest is a mass gathering and thus from a public health perspective, I would urge protective and preventive behaviour against the spread of coronavirus infection, failing which a superspreading event might set in,” cautioned Dr Samiran Panda, head of the Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases division at the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Seeking strict compliance with norms, he said It is important to note that SARS-COV-2 is a transmission efficient virus and such gatherings are conducive to its spread. Many of the farmers, threatening to block all five entry points into the capital, said they are aware the infection is still raging but the Centre's new farm laws are a bigger threat.

Gurmeet Singh from Faridkot in Punjab, for instance, has been at the Burari ground, one of the largest in the city, for three days and counting.

And he has no intention of moving.

For him, and hundreds of other farmers at the North Delhi ground where they were allowed to congregate, the three contentious farm laws are a bigger disease.

"We may even survive corona, but how will we survive this cruel law that will take away our bread and butter," Gurmeet told PTI.

In another corner of the sprawling ground, a team of seven medicos from Delhi's AAP government has tested over 90 farmers for COVID-19 since November 28.

"There have been no positives as yet," said a medical officer on the condition of anonymity.

"We tested 40 people on the 28th, then another team took over, and today we have tested 50 people so far," the officer said. Several e-rickshaws roamed the ground to create awareness of the disease and the necessity of wearing masks and maintaining hand hygiene.

But the message appeared to be getting drowned out in the slogans, protest songs and speeches.

Gursharanjeet Singh from Bilaspur, Uttar Pradesh, said his family is entirely dependent on produce from their six-acre farm.

"If we stay careful we won't get corona, but if we don't protest against these farm laws and this government we will definitely die of hunger," he said.

His desperation finds resonance at the Singhu and Tikri border points, where farmers have been camping in large numbers.

Some volunteers were distributing masks to the protesting farmers.