“Mr. Sainath is instrumental in taking up the Vidarbha farmers’ suicide issue at the international level and he even prevailed upon the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh to visit Vidarbha and declare a relief package for the farmers,” VJAS leader Koshor Tiwari, said in a statement from Yavatmal, the district that tops farmers suicides in Maharashra’s Vidarbha region.

Mr. Tiwari said that Mr. Sainath was being recognised for “his passionate commitment as a journalist to restore the rural poor to India’s national consciousness.”

He followed most of the farmers’ suicide cases and raised all issues of rural health care, education, employment, malnutrition and tribal exploitation through his columns, the VJAS leader noted.

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