P.Sainath--"None So Blind as Those Who Will Not See"
P. Sainath, speaking at the annual A.I.D Conference at the University of Maryland, May 2001

P. Sainath, a noted freelance journalist,photographer and media activist, has been reporting about the ground realities of rural India for many years. Dismayed at the complete lack of sensitivity to crucial issues affecting the vast majority of Indians living in villages, hamlets and small towns, Sainath gave up a cushy editorial position at a major English daily in Mumbai (Bombay) about ten years ago, and since then has reported numerous stories from rural India. His book, "Everybody Loves a Good Drought", published in 1996, provides glimpses of life in many so-called 'drought-prone' districts of India that are systematically ignored or distorted by the mass media, and particularly by the English press.
When he is not travelling in rural India, Sainath is often busy writing and speaking about his work, and the true state of affairs in rural India, at home and abroad. He has also been engaged in several efforts to encourage "barefoot journalists" in rural India. Over the past year, he has launched a scathing critique of the mass media in India, and its failure to provide adequate media coverage to the vital issue of massive deprivation and starvation, even as government godowns (grain storage facilities) are bursting at their seams. The situation is even more ridiculous now (after the monsoon) with goverment stocks of foodgrains estimated at nearly 75 million tons, while the public distribution system was meant to have a storage capacity of only about 17 million tons! [Read More... ]