NEWS

National Farmers’ Day is celebrated across the country on December 23 to honour India’s farmers. It marks the birth anniversary of the nation’s fifth PM Choudhary Charan Singh.

ABOUT CHOUDHARY CHARAN SINGH

• Briefly served as PM between 1979 and 1980
• Widely regarded as one of the country’s most famous peasant leaders.
• Known for his pioneering work to promote the welfare of farmers and the agricultural sector.
• Born into a middle-class peasant family in Uttar Pradesh on December 23, 1902.
• Influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi
• Took an active part in the fight for independence.
• Focused on socialism in rural India.
• Behind several major farmer-forward Bills, including the Land Utilization Bill of 1939 and the Debt Redemption Bill in 1939.
• While serving as agriculture minister in 1952, he led UP in its efforts to abolish the Zamindari system.
• In fact, he went on to draft the UP Zamindari and Land Reforms Bill himself.
• On 23 December 1978, he founded the Kisan Trust — a non-political, non-profit making body — with the aim of educating India’s rural masses against injustice, and fostering solidarity among them.