Who is Sanjoy Ghose?
 | INLAKS Scholar; Founder Secretary, and Trustee, URMUL Rural Health Research & Development Trust, Rajasthan; |
| Founder Secretary, CHARKHA, the Development Communications Network, New Delhi; |
| Winner of the 1993 Sanskriti Award; |
| General Secretary, AVARD, Association of Voluntary Agencies in Rural Development, New Delhi; |
| Team Leader of AVARD North East |
Sanjoy Ghose is a person who has lived and worked for the poor all his
life. Especially for the rural poor. Well known in the development and
voluntary sector across the country, Sanjoy Ghose made a mark with his
pioneering work in the villages of Western Rajasthan. With a background
in rural management (IRMA, Gujarat) and agricultural economics
(Oxford), he set up a voluntary agency called URMUL TRUST and began work
in six villages of rural Bikaner.
In less than ten years, the URMUL TRUST expanded its work to deal with
issues of agriculture, water management, education, income generation
and women's issues in over five hundred villages in the districts of
Jaisalmer, Nagaur, Jodhpur and Bikaner.
The strength of the organisation lies in its roots in the local
community, with both staff and a majority of the leadership drawn from
the community. Sanjoy Ghose is remembered in Rajasthan as having
provided leadership to many pioneering efforts, the success of which has
influenced many government policies and programmes for the rural areas.
After Sanjoy Ghose handed back the organisation to the community, he
then moved to the Northeast. Sanjoy strongly believed that the only cure
to the ills of the Northeast are the people themselves. If young people
could be helped to see an alternative path, a path of constructive work
and development, much of the problems would be finished.
In order to demonstrate his idea and vision, Sanjoy Ghose, heading a
small team of young professionals, and under the banner of AVARD NE,
moved to Majuli, the largest riverine island in the world, in April,
1996. Much neglected, on the brink of survival, and faced with a
serious erosion problem, Majuli epitomised much of the situation in the
Northeast.
A major problem that the people of Majuli face every year is the
flooding of their island by the Bramhaputra. Sanjoy and his team dealt
with this problem by involving the people in evolving low-cost,
community-managed solutions that dealt with both flood control and soil
erosion. Over 20,000 people took part in these community initiatives.
In the process, Sanjoy and his team made enemies of the contractors who
till then were the people who benefitted the most from the annual ritual
of flood controls works. And he also became a threat to ULFA: Sanjoy's
effectiveness with the people offered an unpalatable comparison to
ULFA's achievements.
For ULFA, it was simpler to abduct Sanjoy, then to introspect on their
relationship with the people. In doing so, the ULFA stressed their
impotence in the face of people-led initiatives. They also paid him
their best compliment: they have helped Sanjoy Ghose highlight his
belief that a path of constructive work and development is a better
path for people to follow.
