It was founded in December 2014 by veteran journalist Palagummi Sainath, former rural affairs editor of The Hindu, author of the book Everybody Loves a Good Drought and winner of over 50 national and international awards[citation needed].

[2] It showcases the occupational, linguistic and cultural diversity of India, and aims to publish stories with detail and authenticity, which provide readers, listeners and viewers with a context to derive information and knowledge from.

Additionally, PARI hosts a free online Library[5] with a growing collection of reports, surveys and other material relevant to understanding and contextualising rural India.

These include articles done from the field, multimedia stories, photo essays and videos, as well as documents, reports and laws relevant to the pandemic-lockdown period in the PARI Library.

The protesting farmers have said that these laws will destroy their livelihoods by offering large corporates even greater power over farming, and by undermining the main forms of state support to the cultivator.

The stories revolve around “the stigma around infertility,[33] the emphasis on female sterilisation,[34] the lack of ‘male engagement’ in family planning,[35] inadequate rural healthcare systems[36] that too are out of reach for many, unqualified medical practitioners[37] and dangerous childbirths,[38] discrimination due to menstruation,[39] the preference for sons[40] – and more.

Stories that speak of a wide range of health-related prejudices and practices, people and communities, gender and rights, and the everyday struggles and occasional small victories of women in rural India.” PARI has an exclusive category dedicated to India’s last living freedom fighters,[42] such as Captain Bhau,[43] who led an anti-British uprising that resulted in the formation of a provisional government in Satara, Maharashtra, in 1943; and Salihan,[44] an Adivasi woman from Odisha’s Nuapada who single-handedly took on an armed British officer in 1930, when she was 16.

With this film and article about me and my fellow soldiers, P. Sainath and PARI have revived the memory of prati sarkar [provisional government] and how it fought for people.” This is a collection of over 100,000 ovi – couplets sung by the women of rural Maharashtra over generations, while toiling at the grindmill at home and performing other household tasks.

PARI’s stories on demonetisation – when the Indian government, in November 2016, outlawed 86 per cent of the country’s currency – cover its effects on devastated farmers,[47] landless labourers, beedi-rollers,[48] migrant workers,[49] shop owners[50] and many others across rural India.

This PARI series covers stories about people denied rations,[52] disability pensions,[53] MGNREGA wages,[54] scholarships[55] and more, because of misspelt names, botched biometrics, and other such glitches in their Aadhaar cards.

The PARI library is an online compendium of publicly accessible documents and data on rural India, with sections such as climate change, health, gender, laws, agriculture and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's writings.

[70][71] PARI is the first media website in India to publish its articles in several Indian languages, including Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil and Urdu.

The books are No Nonsense Nandhini by Aparna Karthikeyan, No Ticket, Will Travel by Subuhi Jiwani, House of Uncommons by Vishaka George, Coming Home by Priti David and A Big Splash by Nivedha Ganesh.

Some of the PARI Fellows are – Anubha Bhonsle (2015 & 2019), Purusottam Thakur (2015),[75] Arpita Chakrabarty (2016), Ratna Bharali Talukdar (2016), Ritayan Mukherjee (2016),[76] Urvashi Sarkar (2016),[77] Bhasha Singh (2017), Parth M. N. (2017),[78] Rahul M. (2017), M. Palani Kumar (2019)[79] and Sanket Jain (2019).

The selected films were Ganpati Yadav's gripping life cycle[168] by Sinchita Maji, Possessed by his art, a Bahurupi transforms[169] by Ankan Roy and others, I feel so happy to see the paddy growing[170] by Vishaka George and others, Into the chakshangs of Imphal[171] by Anubha Bhonsle and others and Farming doesn't give us our sustenance[172] by Subuhi Jiwani.