HYDERABAD: PV Satheesh, who was known as the father of the millet revolution in Telangana and one of the founding members of the Deccan Development Society (DDS), passed away after a prolonged illness on Sunday morning. He was 77. His final rites will be held in Pasthapur village near Zaheerabad at 10.30 am on Monday.
A journalist, social worker, community organiser and a champion of biodiversity, food systems, food sovereignty, women empowerment, social justice, local knowledge systems, community media and participatory development, Satheesh worked tirelessly to not only protect indigenous crop varieties from extinction, but also empowered thousands of women farmers of Zaheerabad to become the torchbearers of his ideas and ideals.
Born on June 18, 1945 in Mysuru, Satheesh did his graduation from the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, and worked as a television producer for two decades for Doordarshan, producing programmes related to rural development and rural literacy in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. He played an important role in the historical Satellite Instructional Television Experiment in the 1980s.
Satheesh, along with a few like-minded friends, founded the DDS in Zaheerabad and started working to uplift women from the most marginalised sections in the villages. Forming women’s collectives in around 75 villages in Zaheerabad, Jharasangam and Nyalkal mandals, training Dalit women to run community radio, filmmaking, seed banks, growing millets, vegetables, medicinal and aromatic herbs, running an all-millet restaurant, and providing farm-to-kitchen market for the produce of the women farmers, were just of his achievements as a social worker in the last four decades.
Satheesh led several national and international networks like Millet Network of India (MINI), South Against Genetic Engineering (SAGE), AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity, and was also the India coordinator for SANFEC, the South Asian Network for Food, Ecology and Culture.
He was recently honoured by RRA Network for his lifetime contributions in making millets a people’s agenda.Satheesh is survived by his daughter Mayuri, whom he had adopted when she was in her primary school.