TN Khoshoo Memorial Award

Mr. K.J. Joy is the 2016 TN Khoshoo memorial award winner. As an activist researcher, he has worked for over 35 years on a variety of issues in the area of water management and governance as well as natural resource management. He is committed to the equitable, sustainable, and democratic management of these resources, towards which he has worked as a grassroots activist, interdisciplinary researcher, and policy advocate. He has worked on participatory irrigation and dam management, watershed development, biomass-based rural development, women’s livelihoods and water, conflicts around water, natural resource literacy, and water sector regulation and governance.

He co-founded the Society for Promotion of Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM) in Pune and the Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India, a network that seeks to understand and help resolve conflicts over water through research, dialogue and capacity building. Mr. Joy pioneered the formation of Water Users’ Associations (WUAs) in Maharashtra and worked with Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti to broaden the concept of watershed development.

He has co-authored several path-breaking books, and co-edited two volumes on water conflicts and served on the Planning Commission’s Working Group on Water for the 12th Plan.