P Sainath : The Real Picture
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Apr 25 2006
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Will live ballots revive a dying economy?
In the long-time UDF bastion of Wayanad, the agrarian crisis has transformed things. All have been affected, writes P Sainath.
Apr 02 2006
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India Shining meets the Great Depression
In the villages, we demolish their lives, and in the city their homes. The smug indifference of the elite is matched by the governments they do not vote in, but control. P Sainath contrasts the tongue-lolling coverage of the Beautiful People with the studied indifference to the plight of millions.
Mar 22 2006
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Privatisation, come hell or high water
Converting water to a commercial good to be sold for profit invites disaster. Most of all for poor people whose already pathetic access to water will shrink swiftly, writes P Sainath.
Mar 18 2006
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Look to helpline, land in jail
Those turning to the Government 'helpline' in Mahbubnagar, Andhra Pradesh, learn the hard way what happens when the little farmer of the countryside runs into the large apparatus of the state. P Sainath reports on a farmer's near-death brush with the government's promise of relief.
Feb 25 2006
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Creative solutions, sarkari-style
The many ways in which officials in a region gripped by crisis try to deal with it can be intriguing. Even entertaining. From advising farmers to plant crops in line with zodiac signs to suggesting they bear arms against moneylenders — it's all happening in Vidarbha, writes P Sainath.
Feb 25 2006
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A scenario of post-mortems 24x7
Post-mortem registers at some centres in Vidarbha show poisoning cases outnumber all other cases put together. Meanwhile, farm suicides are up sharply after November and spreading to the paddy belt. In some districts, the suicide mortality rate for male farmers in 2004 was 10 times the national average for all males, writes P Sainath.
Feb 25 2006
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'Forced privatisation' of cotton
Disputes over output do not hide the trouble Maharashtra's cotton economy is in. Small farmers face another year of huge losses. The role of nature is very minor compared to conscious policy measures that have undermined the farmer and world cotton prices, writes P Sainath.
Jan 11 2006
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The health of nations
India needs a strong public health system, but our direction is the opposite. Public spending on health is a mere 0.9% of GDP, and medical care is now the second most common cause of rural family debt. Public ill health, private profit - that's the partnership we are forging, writes P Sainath.
Jan 03 2006
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The swelling 'register of deaths'
Maharashtra began by telling the NHRC there had been 140 suicides Statewide since 2001. It ended 2005 conceding a figure of 1,041. That is the fourth figure the same State has put out within months. For Vidarbha, it is decidedly not a happy new year, writes P Sainath.
Dec 14 2005
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Cry, the beloved countryside
The agrarian crisis in Vidarbha has spun almost out of control. Appeals for swift measures by many have fallen on deaf ears. The farm suicides are the tip of the huge crisis raging here, not its whole. They are, though, its most powerful symbol, writes P Sainath.

Palagummi Sainath is the winner of the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts. (click to read India Together's interview with P Sainath)

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Over decades of reporting, he has established himself as among the pre-eminent chroniclers of rural life in our times. His stories, photo-essays, and other work record an India seldom visible to many of us. Sainath received the A.H. Boerma Award in 2001 for his contributions. In July 2004, he was awarded the Prem Bhatia Award for excellence in political reporting and analysis for 2003-04 in recognition of his 'outstanding, indeed exceptional, work on the problems of the poorest of the poor, especially in Andhra Pradesh.' He is the Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu.