16. A Spatial Analysis of the Indian Farmers' Protests

In 2020-2021, 250 million people protested three agricultural laws' that threatened to suppress Indian farmers' autonomy, leading to the world's largest protest to date. These three laws promote globalization of the agriculture sector and decrease reliance on the minimum support price offered by each state. Farmers, traders, and affiliated groups faced the absence of state protection against global corporations having free entry into the market and potential control of the produce supply. We conduct a spatial analysis of the farmers' protests from 2020 to 2021 in India, focusing on the types of actors that were involved in the protest to observe their spatial variability across the country. We connect socioeconomic features, using the PRIO-GRID dataset, to the spatial intensity of protests across India. Our study relates the spatial socioeconomic features to the intensity of protests across different types of actors (such as religious or political organizations and different types of unions). We use this modeling framework to begin to understand the ability and motivations behind people protesting across a socioeconomically diverse nation. These findings provide insight into the spatial range and patterns of different groups within the farmers' protests. This research is valuable to further understanding the people and groups involved in the Farmers' Protests and the complex nature of continuous agricultural advancement in India.

Mid-Level

Knowledge

Women in Statistics and Data Science 2024