Lucknow, Feb 15: Senior journalist and author P. Sainath on Saturday voiced sharp concern over what he described as “severe and widening inequality” in India, saying disparities in wealth, education, gender and language were eroding the social fabric and undermining constitutional promises.
Addressing a seminar titled “Media in an Era of Inequality” organised by Jan Vichar Manch at the Kaifi Azmi Auditorium in Lucknow, Sainath said inequality could not be reduced unless the right to work and the right to education were made fundamental rights under the Constitution.
“Unless work and education are guaranteed as fundamental rights, social inequality will persist,” he said, arguing that merely invoking constitutional principles without enforceable rights would not bridge deep structural divides.
Citing data to illustrate growing concentration of wealth in politics, Sainath said that in 2004, about 30% of the 543 members of the Lok Sabha were millionaires, a figure that has risen to 93% by 2024. The rising number of wealthy legislators, he said, reflected broader economic disparities.
He contrasted “lavish weddings of the wealthy” with the plight of nearly 3,00,000 families in Maharashtra who, he claimed, have been unable to marry off their children due to financial constraints. At the same time, he noted, India ranks 134th in the United Nations Human Development Report even as the number of dollar billionaires in the country continues to grow.
Sainath, a Ramon Magsaysay Award winner often described as a pioneer of rural journalism, said the country was witnessing inequality on a scale that, in his view, exceeded that of the colonial era. “The freedom struggle was fought against inequality. Today, the gap has widened further,” he said.
Turning to the media, he said journalism and media had “taken different paths”, with profit increasingly driving electronic media. “Journalism was meant to raise the voice of the common people. Today, profit-making has become the primary objective,” he said.
Referring to his book Tagada Sukha Sabke Man Bhaave, Sainath said it has been translated into 12 Indian languages and has gone through 68 editions.
The seminar was chaired by senior journalist Naveen Joshi, who expressed concern that rural issues once prominently covered in Hindi newspapers through columns such as “Gaon Ki Chitthi” were steadily losing space. Academics, students, writers and social workers attended the event.
