PARI- People Archive of Rural India

P Sainath, the founder of the People Archive of Rural India got onto the stage sharing, 'There's a bad news.' 

"Drought hit 5 states and it's continuing to 9 states by this summer. And no one talks about it." 

Sainath is a journalist who spent more than 3 decades in the field witnessing various changes, progress and lot more in the field of journalism. He spoke on various issues rural people are facing.

He talked about how we're ignorant to the mega water crisis we're facing right now. In Maharastra, there are villages that are hit by drought and in the same state, we've real estate ventures building apartments with a separate swimming pool for floors. Separate swimming pool for a floor!  It's irony that a farmer in a village moves to the city due to water scarcity for farming and works as a labourer constructing swimming pools for the floor in the city. Can't imagine his agony. 

"Livelihood to lifestyle. Rich to Poor, we're becoming foreigners in our country totally disconnected from what's happening in villages." 

That's very true. We're not looking at any crisis until it is at it's worse. Totally ignorant of what's happening in villages. 

Talking about journalism, Sainath shared few interesting facts and figures. 0.67 % news is the news of 69% rural population of india at the front page on a national daily. Crime and Entertainment  sections takes the lot of space than combining all the social news, education, health, agriculture.

Talking about sports section,  "It's not merely sports. Its' franchises, player profiles, business and a lot more about revenue again."

Do not tell me, "Newspapers write what people read." "You gave me your saturday evening to listen to the news of a rural indians. There are people. But sadly, journalism has become one more revenue resource but not a strong pillar of society." 

Everyone know Bhagath Singh as a rebel, revolutionary but he was also a journalist. 

Eye opening facts and figures. And the content he put is fabulous. Be it the jayamma story or the folk lore. Great content. Glad I decided to attend the event. I got a chance to catch up with old friend, Kashyap and other friends.