P Sainath : The Real Picture
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Apr 19 2008
GLOBALISATION
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Between a rock and a hard place
The nations that taught us that state meddling in economic matters was blasphemy are now nationalising banks, bailing out brigands, and pouring in funds to stop factories from closing down. But a few true believers are still holding out, against all the evidence, writes P Sainath.
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Mar 11 2008
OPINION
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Oh! What a lovely waiver
The UPA government's waiver of farm loans that was announced in the Union budget is no solution to even the immediate crisis let alone long-term agrarian problems. Nothing in this budget will raise farm incomes, writes P Sainath.
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Feb 12 2008
OPINION
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The glory days of the Raj?
As more and more people pour out of the villages, voting with their feet against the distress in the countryside, the base the Sena built within Mumbai's own dispossessed and migrants of Marathi background is now under contest. It's a larger canvas that won't go away, arrest or no arrest, writes P Sainath.
Jan 19 2008
OPINION
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Discrimination for dummies: V 2008
Increasingly, job quotas are cited as 'discrimination' - in reverse. But the word discrimination in terms of caste means something very different that the media mostly do not, or choose not to, understand, writes P Sainath.
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Dec 26 2007
OPINION
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India 2007: High growth, low development
Even nations that are far below us in the Human Development Index rankings - and which have nothing like our growth numbers - have done much better than us on many counts, writes P Sainath.
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Nov 14 2007
FARMER SUICIDES
One farmer's suicide every 30 minutes
FARMER SUICIDES : One farmer's suicide every 30 minutes
Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have together seen 89,362 farmers' suicides between 1997 and 2005. On average, one farmer took his or her life every 53 minutes between 1997 and 2005 in just these states, writes P Sainath.
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Nov 14 2007
FARMER SUICIDES
Farm suicides worse after 2001
FARMER SUICIDES : Farm suicides worse after 2001
While the number of farm suicides kept increasing, the number of farmers has fallen since 2001, with countless thousands abandoning agriculture in distress, writes P Sainath.
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Nov 14 2007
FARMER SUICIDES
1.5 lakh farm suicides in 1997-2005
FARMER SUICIDES : 1.5 lakh farm suicides in 1997-2005
Close to 150,000 Indian farmers committed suicide in nine years from 1997 to 2005, official data show. While farm suicides have occurred in many States, nearly two thirds of these deaths are concentrated in five States, writes P Sainath.
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Nov 14 2007
FARMER SUICIDES
Maharashtra: The graveyard of farmers
FARMER SUICIDES : Maharashtra: The graveyard of farmers
The state has witnessed 30,000 farm suicides in a decade. Vidarbha is the worst place in the nation to be a farmer, writes P Sainath.
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Nov 02 2007
OPINION
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Indexing inhumanity, Indian style
It took minutes for the top guns to swing into action when the Sensex fell by several hundred points. But no Minister came forward to calm the nation when India hit the 94th rank in the Global Hunger Index, writes P Sainath.
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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.