 "Punjab, known as the country's grain bowl with over 80 per cent of its land under irrigation, recorded the second highest farmers suicides in 2015, after Maharashtra")
Of all protests by government employees across India in 2015, one-third took place in Punjab. The state witnessed no less than 5,764 protests by government workers that year, in which employees ranging from school teachers to sanitation workers took to the streets.
In most cases, the demands were the same: More hiring; ‘regularisation’ of contract workers–that they be made permanent employees with concomitant benefits such as pension, insurance and leave allowance; or both.
Once among India’s wealthiest and fastest-growing states, Punjab ranks a middling 12 in terms of gross state
