Does it take toll on the mental health of the farmers? I dived in with some questions to a gentleman at Tikri.

“There is anxiety, stress and pain that is not visible to even the government that we have chosen. This is our nation & our people don’t listen to us.”

“We braved the barricades, water cannons, cold weather, dust and are sleeping on roads, everybody comes around with food packets to make a video of our miseries to be sold in market where sorrow sells. No one really knows what goes on in our heads when we look at setting sun”

Another lady tells me that it is hard fighting our own people who have decided to not listen to us for some reason. “Helplessness is painful. Yes there is stress but are not giving up hope.”

Vilification campaigns have effect on mental health too. A retired army man who joined army when he was 23 tells me that “It feels bad, very bad. I get dreams of my senior officers shouting at me for being a traitor. Everything I hear about us in media makes me feel bad.”

There are stories here, a lot of them. I urge media to look beyond the sheer sloganeering, campaigns, press conferences, sensational videos. There is a human aspect of these protests that has never been seen.
#FarmersProtest