SKM Demands ₹10,000 Monthly Pension for Farmers, Labourers and Rural Artisans

A pension demand on the protest charter

Among the demands raised at the Samyukta Kisan Morcha's seven-day protest at the Chandigarh-Mohali border, which began on September 1, 2026, is a monthly pension of ₹10,000 for farmers, farm labourers and rural artisans. The demand forms part of a broader social security charter that the SKM has pursued since the 2020–21 farmers' movement.

Prem Singh Bhangu, president of the All India Kisan Federation, told reporters that the SKM sought ₹10,000 per month as social security for farmers and workers alongside demands for a legal MSP guarantee, debt waivers and scrapping of the proposed India-US trade deal. The pension proposal is consistently listed among the union's core grievances in the current agitation.

Who the demand is meant to cover

The SKM's pension demand extends beyond land-owning cultivators to agricultural labourers and rural artisans, reflecting an attempt to build a social security floor for the wider rural workforce. Farmer unions argue that those who produce food and sustain village economies lack any guaranteed income support in old age or during periods of crop failure.

Reports from the protest site indicate that the demand resonates with elderly farmers who have camped at the border with tractor-trolleys and community kitchens, many of whom have farmed for decades without pension coverage. The unions frame the ₹10,000 figure as a minimum dignified income rather than a substitute for MSP or debt relief.

Context of rural indebtedness

The pension demand sits alongside calls for complete loan waivers for farmers and agricultural labourers, and for government jobs and financial assistance for families of farmers who died by suicide due to debt. SKM leaders have argued that social security and debt relief are complementary: waivers address accumulated burden while pensions provide ongoing protection.

Punjab's farm economy remains heavily dependent on the wheat-paddy procurement cycle, leaving many cultivators vulnerable to price fluctuations, rising input costs and water stress. Unions contend that without institutional social security, rural households cycle repeatedly between debt, distress sales and protest.

Government silence and next steps

Neither the Union nor the Punjab government had, as of September 4, publicly responded to the pension demand at the protest site. SKM leaders accused both of ignoring memorandums submitted before the agitation began, saying the silence had forced them onto the streets.

The protest is scheduled to run through September 7, with leaders saying they would decide on further action after awaiting a government response until September 5. The ₹10,000 pension demand is expected to remain on the table in any future dialogue, as it has in previous SKM resolutions adopted at national council meetings.