Title: India farmers protests: Thousands swarm Delhi against deregulation rules - CNN
Headings: Tens of thousands of farmers swarm India's capital to protest deregulation rules
Tens of thousands of farmers swarm India's capital to protest deregulation rules
What the protests are about
Why it's such a hot political issue

Content: India farmers protests: Thousands swarm Delhi against deregulation rules - CNN
Tens of thousands of farmers swarm India's capital to protest deregulation rules
By Julia Hollingsworth, Swati Gupta and Esha Mitra, CNN
Updated 6:59 PM ET, Sun December 6, 2020
Farmers congregate during day five of the protest against the new farm reform laws at Singhu border on November 30, 2020 in New Delhi, India. New Delhi (CNN) Tens of thousands of farmers have swarmed India's capital where they intend to camp out for weeks to protest new agricultural laws that they say could destroy their livelihoods. Farmers from the nearby states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh began arriving by tractors and on foot at the outskirts of New Delhi last week, where they blocked roads and set up makeshift camps, according to protest leaders. Some slept on the road or in their tractors, and several places of worship offered protesters food. Police attempted to block demonstrators from entering the city. They fired tear gas and water cannons Thursday and Friday after protesters pelted police officers with stones and damaged public property, according to Manoj Yadav, a senior police official from Haryana. The farmers are protesting laws passed in September, which Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi says will give farmers more autonomy to set their own prices and sell directly to private businesses, such as supermarket chains. But the move has infuriated India's farmers, who say that the new rules will leave them worse off by making it easier for corporates to exploit agricultural workers who make up more than half of India's 480 million-strong workforce, according to India's most recent Census in 2011. Farmers gather near a police road block stopping them from marching to New Delhi during a demonstration on November 30, 2020.