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P.Sainath, rural affairs editor of The Hindu newspaper, spends about 250 days a year in rural India, reporting about issues that affect the rural Indian majority. Recently, Sainath won the 2006 Harry Chapin award for journalism, and met several AID chapters during this visit.
Sainath at College Park, MD
Photograph: Jerrah Edwards |
If you’ve read his articles in The Hindu, you know the stories. However, Sainath manages to link the stories to a larger picture of government negligence at best, and a concerted effort to drive small and marginal farmers off the land, at worst. Sainath described several stark contrasts in India today; the average CEO earns 30,000 times more than the average worker. Overall, while labor productivity rose 84%, real wages of laborers dropped 22%. Today, India is importing expensive wheat from Australia (who was importing wheat 9 years ago from Punjab). Ironically, India exports 20 million tons of grain at Rs. 5.45/kg whereas the same grain is sold to the poor at Rs 6.15/kg! Since the beginning of structural adjustment policies in India, the government has reduced spending on health care, education and the public distribution system from 14% in 1991 to 5.9% in 2005 – such programs are the lifeline of families living in abject poverty. Sainath drew attention to the huge suicide rate of one in 6 hours among the farmers. In response, the government’s “measures” have ranged from gifting a cow to families in arid areas (who have little food for themselves, let alone for a cow!) to psychiatric counseling for farmers contemplating suicide. These examples illustrate the inadequacy of the government’s response to the crisis. When asked what we could do from here, Sainath replied that the only valid question for an Indian to ask is “Where can I start?”. In India, there is no dearth of ways in which we can start playing a role – understanding the connections between the distress of the small farmer or farm labourer and the structural adjustment policies in India is just the beginning. Sainath’s articles are available on the IndiaTogether website ---
Supriya Kumar, Chicago |
