Founder and Executive Director, Gram Vikas

Joe Madiath is all about the basics. Founder and director of Gram Vikas, Madiath has brought clean water, indoor bathroom facilities and electricity to a number of India's most marginalized villages in one of India's poorest states. Leveraging government money with strong community support - which Madiath feels must be unanimous – his grassroots work is transforming lives.

Joe Madiath completed his studies in English literature from Madras University. As a student, he was elected as the President of Madras University Students’ Union and founded the Young Students’ Movement for Development (YSMD) to harness positively the student disenchantment prevailing during that period. In 1969, as a student, he journeyed across India, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka on a bicycle for a year.

In 1971, Joe led 400 YSMD volunteers to manage a number of relief camps for refugees from Bangladesh. Later that year, 40 volunteers along with Joe moved to Orissa, which had been ravaged by a cyclone and tidal waves. Joe and a few colleagues decided to stay on in the area after relief work and worked as development activists. They moved to Ganjam District in southern Orissa in 1976 on invitation from the Government, to initiate development activities among the indigenous communities. This resulted in the establishment of Gram Vikas in 1979.

Gram Vikas today, is one of the largest NGOs in Orissa, reaching out to about 36,000 indigenous and poor families living in 560 rural habitations. Some of the pioneering efforts of Gram Vikas have been in biogas promotion, community forestry, rural habitat development and education. Villgro commends Gram Vikas’ current approach to convergent community action with water and sanitation as the entry point, as it evolves into a movement influencing local democratic self-governance and poor people’s control over development processes. We are thrilled to have Joe share his ‘unconventional’ life story and dedication to grassroots development at the Opening Plenary Session.

Gram Vikas and Joe Madiath have received several national and international awards in recognition of their work, including the Allan Shawn Feinstein World Hunger Award for 1995-96 from Brown University, USA; the Dr. K.S. Rao Memorial National Award, 1998 for outstanding Lifetime contribution to the development of new and renewable sources of energy from the Solar Energy Society of India.