Madiath Joseph
Organization: Gram Vikas
Year Founded: 1979
Country: India
Website: www.gramvikas.org
Video Helping villagers pool resources to set up water and sanitation infrastructure, Gram Vikas improves the quality of life of poor rural communities in India. Focus: Education, Health, Rural Development, Water and Sanitation Geographic Area of Impact: India Model: Hybrid Non-Profit Recognition: Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum Background Joe Madiath became acquainted with Orissa's rural poor when he led a group of student volunteers from Madras University who were providing relief after a cyclone devastated the area in 1971. Struck by the terrible poverty, particularly among Adivasis (indigenous people) and Dalits (Untouchables), Madiath remained to provide further assistance. At that time, Orissa’s villages lacked even the most basic infrastructure. He quickly realized that the limited economic options were driving villagers to urban slums in a futile search for prosperity. Hoping to reverse this trend, he and a few friends started Gram Vikas with the goal of improving living conditions in villages, increasing local economic options and restoring dignity to marginalized populations. Innovation and Activities Working in extremely impoverished areas of Orissa, Gram Vikas helps tens of thousands of villagers organize themselves to solve a wide range of social and health problems. Gram Vikas demands the participation of each and every adult in its programmes and provides incentives to encourage villagers to pool their resources to improve village infrastructure and sanitation. This process has led to increased awareness of rights and civic duties and more effective political mobilization. The core methodology of Gram Vikas is to harness, through full community mobilization, all physical and human capital in a village. The organization works with the villagers to create and manage a "village corpus," a fund that draws cash and in-kind contributions from all families based on their ability to pay. Once the fund is established, the organization contributes supplementary resources or makes soft loans for specific projects. Under a state project, Gram Vikas set up 55,000 biogas systems in Orissa to provide inexpensive fuel for villagers. Through its Rural Health and Environment Program, Gram Vikas has helped more than 35,362 families in 522 villages build low-cost facilities for safe drinking water and proper sanitation. As a result, every family in the village has a toilet, bathing room and protected piped water supply; water-related diseases have been reduced drastically. All constructions make use of the villagers' own resources, materials and labour, demystifying construction techniques and enhancing their skills. The same approach has been used to build roads, drainage systems, community halls and schools. The Gram Vikas Rural Health and Environment Program has won numerous international awards, including the UN Habitat Award (2003), World Bank Development Market Place Award (2003), Kyoto World Water Grand Prize (2006) and Skoll Award (2006). The Entrepreneur Recognizing the poor conditions workers faced on his family farms, Joe Madiath at the age of 12 led a movement to organize them to lobby for better treatment. His confrontational role was met with hostility as his family banished him to a boarding school 2,500 km away from home. When he returned at age 16, Joe embarked on a bicycle tour across his country and worked with tribal people along the way to improve their conditions. After the successful launch of Gram Vikas, Joe’s family finally accepted his views, and his father became fully supportive of his son’s activities as a social entrepreneur.
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