People’s Archive of Rural India

People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) held its first ever convention at the India International Centre recently. PARI is an online archive, which is the brainchild of P. Sainath, former Rural Affairs Editor in The Hindu. PARI’s main aim is to create an archive where the diversity and the knowledge of rural India could be preserved and used. Rural India has more than 800 million people living in it and could be considered as the most diverse part of the planet with several language and cultures. But it is this part of the world which is highly neglected and not accounted for.

One of the founding member of PARI.

The tribesman and tribeswomen of many parts are on the verge of extinction. With them, a century old culture could be gone. It is these things which make India a great and diverse nation. But, many believe that what makes India unique and diverse could well be gone in the coming decades. Rural India is losing its voice and it is this gap that PARI is trying to fill.

P. Sainath answering a question.

PARI has generated quite a buzz with the data that it has created for itself. The Fellows of PARI have stayed at the remotest parts of the country and have created content for the world to see.

P Sainath said, “We want to have 2 years of absolute focus, where we have a PARI Fellow in every one of the 50 sub-regions of the country to just produce content on rural India making this the largest and most unique database ever of its kind.” He narrated the story of an old man living in the outskirts of Kerala running a library on his own.

P. Sainath explaining his view.

The man had approximately 100 books and all of them were classics. When PARI decided to show his humble effort, the number of books went past 1000 in a very short period of time.

He then showed photographs of coal workers working in Jharkhand. Those coal workers have to walk the whole day to sell coal and at the end of the day earn to pay for the basic necessities of their family.

Coal Worker.

P. Sainath is the Ramon Magsaysay winner in 2007, which is Asia’s most prestigious award. He is also the winner of the first ever Amnesty International’s Global Human Rights Journalism Prize in 2000. His book ‘Everybody Loves a Good Draught’ is considered to be a classic.