Fighting Caste and Patriarchy: How Women Farmers Are Reclaiming Commons

Punjab has over 1.70 lakh acres of Shamlat or village common land owned by Gram Panchayats and auctioned annually to farmers for cultivation. Under rule 6 (1)(a) of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Rules, 1964, one-third of this is reserved for Dalit farmers. In practice, oppressor-caste farmers have systematically circumvented this provision through dummy auctions, placing proxy Dalit bidders who hand the land back to them once it is allocated. The practice is widespread and well-documented, and has continued for years across Punjab’s villages.

The Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Committee (ZPSC), formed in 2014, has been opposing this practice via Samjhi Boli or joint biddings; led by Dalit women, farmers pool their resources to outbid proxy bidders and secure the land that is rightfully theirs. This piece reports on a gathering in Bhawanigarh, Sangrur district in July 2025, where Dalit women came together to constitute ZPSC’s women’s wing. The event marks a formal recognition of the fact that women had always led the struggle, but their entitlements were not recognised within it.

The article profiles two women at the centre of the movement. Jasveer Kaur, 41, of Herike village, has been part of ZPSC since 2020. After five years of sustained protest against repeated dummy auctions in her village, the Dalit community successfully leased the reserved Shamlat land in 2025. This land is now communally managed under a committee of 7-8 members that pools money from 15 families to bid jointly, cultivate collectively, and distribute produce proportionally. In Badrukhan, 25 kilometres away, Raj Kaur, 41, leads Punjab Parivar, a collective of 35 Dalit families that jointly manage five acres. She also names sexual harassment as a reason women are fighting for land: “Women working on farms face sexual abuse regularly,” making this a struggle not only for autonomy but also for safe spaces.