Originally reported and written in March 2023, this story has been republished as part of our archival content.

In a major loss for Indian civil society, Periyapatna Venkatasubbaiah Satheesh, the ‘Millet Man of Telangana’, founder and executive director of the Deccan Development Society (DDS), passed away in the early hours of 19 March 2023 following a prolonged illness. PV Satheesh was undergoing treatment at a major hospital in Hyderabad before passing away at age 77. 

On the following morning, his last rites were performed in Pastapur village of Sangareddy district (formerly a part of Medak district), in the Zaheerabad region of Telangana. It was back in the early 1980s when Satheesh, along with a couple of friends, broke away from mainstream media to establish DDS in Zaheerabad, a semi-arid region in rural Telangana.  

As founder of DDS, he played a pivotal role in improving the livelihoods of thousands of women who were largely from Dalit and adivasi communities across 75 villages in Telangana. Collectivising these women into ‘sanghams’, the DDS organised a range of programmes challenging hunger, malnutrition and monoculture, and promoting biodiversity, gender justice and economic security.

Underpinning these programmes was a revival of millets, particularly white jowar (Sorghum), native to the region, that can sustainably grow in semi-arid conditions and offer better health benefits than more ‘commercial’ crops like rice, wheat and sugarcane. Satheesh led the internationally-renowned non-profit organisation for more than four decades. 

Over time, he also led and actively participated in several national and international advocacy organisations like Millet Network of India (MINI), South Against Genetic Engineering (SAGE), AP Coalition in Defence of Diversity and South Asian Network for Food, Ecology and Culture (SANFEC) to promote sustainable farming, livelihoods, biodiversity, and of course, millets.                    

For example, through MINI, an umbrella organisation of activists, scientists and non-governmental organisations, he successfully pushed the Union government to implement the National Food Security Act, 2013, and include millets in the public distribution system (PDS). His work has gone on to inspire similar initiatives in millet revival and promotion across India. 

Going one step further, he is also credited with starting India’s first Community Media Trust, a grassroots organisation where poor and marginalised Dalit women received training in filmmaking in a bid to facilitate their representation in the Indian media landscape, and even launched India’s first rural and civil society-led community radio station called Sangham Radio. 

Satheesh also established the Pachha Saale (‘Permaculture School’), where he inspired the youth with an alternative model of education and serious conversations about their socio-economic realities. Products of this school have today become community leaders. 

Giving young media talent their first break

Born on 18 June 1945 in Mysuru, PV Satheesh graduated from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, and started his career as a journalist. For nearly two decades, he was a pioneering television producer for the state-run Doordarshan, where he often made programmes promoting rural development and literacy in erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh.   

Through his time in mainstream media, Satheesh helped many young talents get their first break including Harsha Bhogle, the well-regarded cricket commentator and analyst. He credits Satheesh with giving him his first major break in the media. 

As he notes in his Twitter thread, “He allowed me to host preview programmes & my work on DD (& AIR) made........

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