Independence with dignity

Joe Madiath, has been a major part of Initiatives of Change for several years. He has been instrumental in development of a strong team in Orissa. Had heard about him many times at Asia Plateau, Panchgani. And now a hard hitting article on "The Hindu". Looking forward towards meeting him in person.

Source:http://www.hindu.com/mag/2007/08/19/stories/2007081950120500.htm
Article by-HARIHARAN BALAKRISHNAN

For more than three decades, Joe Madiath has been helping villagers in Orissa empower themselves.

The devastating super cyclone of 1999 is fresh in the memory of many in Orissa, and others in India and across the world. But few remember the cyclone that ravaged Orissa, Bengal and Bangladesh in 1971. India, particularly Eastern India, had to bear the burden of 10 million refugees from the erstwhile East Pakistan. At a time when world attention was focussed on Bangladesh’s birth pangs, a great cyclone hit the same part of this globe.

Beginnings

Joe Madiath led a group of 400 volunteers from Young Students’ Movement for Development (YSMD) to West Bengal. They worked in West Dinajpur, Malda and a few other districts but Joe soon found that, while international aid was pouring into Bengal, the devastation in Orissa was not on anyone’s radar. So he shifted base and pitched tent in Kendrapara area of Cuttack district with 40 volunteers.

After some basic work, the group decided that providing irrigation facilities would be the best way to put the victims back on their feet. So, they formed a lift-irrigation co-operative of villagers and helped augment resources. But once the facilities were operational, the big land-owners reneged on their earlier promise to cede some of their land for common benefit. Big landlords got the maximum benefit, smaller ones got less, and the landless were left high and dry. Joe decided this was not his calling. The group handed over the irrigation points to the locals and left.

But Joe’s heart was with the poor. He had seen the misery of have-nots at close quarters. When travelling through Orissa — in Kalahandi one day and Keonjhar the next week — one Collector spotted him and asked if he would like to do something for the tribals of Ganjam district. And Joe landed in Mohuda village to what turned out to be his life’s calling.

A dairy cooperative

Joe visited Berhampur, Ganjam’s largest town, in response to Collector D.P. Bagchi’s call, travelled intensively and met many. Among them was Ramanath Das, President of the District Co-operative Bank. Around that time, a mahant donated 100 acres of land for a milk producers’ co-opearative. Ramanath Das asked Joe to take a part of the land on lease and develop a dairy farm. Joe went back to Chennai and Kerala and returned with five volunteers and 30 acres were taken on a 35-year lease.

This was when I first met Joe. In 1974, some of us were involved in civic improvement of Berhampur, besides weekend health work in another village near Mohuda.

On Sundays and holidays, scooters rolled towards the hills and we held clinics. Young doctors from MKCG Medical College volunteered, and the HOD, Paediatrics, helped with immunisation kits. Soon sisters of the newly-started Missionaries of Charity joined in. Thanks to Mother Teresa’s volunteers, there was no more scarcity of medicines.

After a few years of dairy and horticulture work, Joe realised that milk produced in Mohuda did not benefit the local people. Tribals considered milking a cow a “sin”! All produce was going to Berhampur.

Again, he decided this was not his calling either. Soon Joe and his group formed Gram Vikas, which was registered in 1979.

The dairy farm, horticulture and healthcare were going on apace. Micro-finance had made a small beginning. One nationalised bank opened a branch at Mohuda. Simultaneously, the poor tribals were realising the power of a group. A massive andolan was launched to shake off their burden of debt and bonded labour.

Not only were small holdings of land, but even their children, were mortgaged to the Sahukars who lent them money and supplied liberal liquor to men-folk. Women, under the leadership of Anthya Madiath, made a consistent effort to wean the men from liquor. The freshly-enacted Act against bonded labour came in handy. Before long, land came back to the rightful owners.

Benefits of biogas

Meanwhile, Joe had seen the benefits of biogas (earlier, Ramanath Das had taken him to a tea-snack joint where the fuel was produced from cow dung in a makeshift plant). The Government too was thinking on alternative energy, and offered liberal subsidy.

So, Joe decided to provide power to the people with locally available material. Till date, Gram Vikas has installed more than 55,000 biogas plants in Orissa, one of the smallest States.

While Gram Vikas was on its way to becoming the torch-bearer in the biogas field, Joe was visiting places, sharing and learning about empowerment and development. Much of the mortality in rural areas was related to water and hygiene.

So, an ambitious project was started to get rid of this scourge. Clean, continuous running water for each home through taps in toilet, bathroom and kitchen was the target. Technology for building overhead storage tanks, laying pipelines and such work was the domain of government engineers.

Joe and his team sought to demystify this. Soon the villagers, with help from a core group of trained people, dug wells, drilled borewells and put 40 ft. high tanks in place. Pumps were installed where electricity was available. In remote hamlets, where it was not, the gravity flow principle was used with ingenuity.

Simultaneously, toilets and bathrooms were coming up in thousands, all built by the villagers. Gram Vikas lent a helping hand. All toilets and homes were of one type, irrespective of the owner’s caste, social or economic status. It was an “all or none” decision for the village.

Key contributions

Participation and involvement are the key words in this idea of rural development. Each village has to contribute Rs.1000 to the “core fund”, each villager according to his ability. Every family also had to contribute local materials, labour and some cash. Gram Vikas gives the “social costs” in the form of cement, steel, pan and door. Village boys and girls are given free masonry training.

What used to be bathing ponds were turned into farms for pisciculture. Fish became a source of revenue for many a village. Social pressure plays a great part in ensuring norms.

Young rebel

A Marxist at heart, Joe’s initial protest was at age 12 when he organised youngsters in his native Kerala town to get better working conditions for workers in family farms. His father packed him off to distant West Bengal for schooling.

Returning at 16, he was active as a student leader in college. At 21, while he was President of Loyola College, Madras, he went on a solo cycle trip across the country, right up to Sikkim. He found that poverty knew no language or caste.

At the threshold of 60 today, Joe Madiath has set a target of reaching 1,20,000 families by 2010 for his clean water and toilet scheme. It will benefit a million people in all. He says this is achievable. Joe knows this cannot be done within the confines of Orissa State. Gram Vikas volunteers are interacting with like-minded NGOs in Jharkand, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh to take the movement forward.

Recognition

Such sustained effort at development is recognised sooner or later. Last year, Gram Vikas won the India NGO Award and the Kyoto World Water Grand Prize at Mexico City. In February this year, Joe Madiath was voted one of the 10 recipients for the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. In material terms, it means three-year grants of more than $1,000,000.

With sincerity and good management at the top, each dollar will benefit the poor and the marginalised. The world would be a better place if Madiath and Mohuda inspire some “citizens of tomorrow”.

That would help a million poor Indians stand up with dignity.