Early life and Education:
Shri Sharad Joshi, son of late shri Damodar Joshi and late Smt. Shakuntla Joshi was born and brought up in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He completed his post graduation from Indore School of Social Work. During his student life, he started working for social cause in the tribal areas near Indore. This early experience of engaging with vulnerable communities laid the foundation of this strong commitment towards championing the cause of the poor and helped in building his understanding on the concepts of equity, accountability, human rights etc.
Career:
After completing Masters from Indore School of Social Science, he ventured into the development sector as a labour welfare specialist. He decided to travel to Rajasthan to help in the flood relief in Jaipur in the early 80s where he came face to face with the concerns and struggles of the poor at the grassroots. He was passionate about helping in the rehabilitation of these communities, which led to the foundation of CECOEDECON in 1982. During the rehabilitation work in rural area of Chaksu block (in Jaipur district) he realized that without having a sustainable development approach; it may be difficult to connect the vulnerable communities with mainstream development.
Position of Responsibilities:
Contribution to the field
Sharad Ji’s work on livelihood security of marginal farmers and organizing communities has been recognized widely and has been accepted as a model.
He also supported more than 60 small organizations by strengthening them for resource mobilization and program development. He served on Boards of a number of national and international organizations to promote cross learning and strengthening of voluntary movement.
He was one of the founder members of the National Association of Professional Social Workers in India (NAPSWAI), which is the only professional body, dedicated for betterment of social work practice in India. He founded Development Coordination Network Committee (DCNC), which was a network of more than 200 organizations committed for supporting the needs of marginalized communities in Rajasthan. He was a founding member and promoter of PAIRVI an organization committed for capacity building of small organizations struggling for rights of the marginalized. He was also founder of Swadhar Foundation, Jal Prahari and Centre for Dalit Human Rights (CDHR).
Contribution to the society
Sharad Ji always supported the voice of Indian civil society organizations and collectives to present the Indian perspective on a whole range of human rights, livelihood Security, climate change-related agenda and sustainable development both at local and the global level.
Throughout his professional career in voluntary sector, Sharad ji focused on building capacities of the poor and the marginalized so that they enjoy equal rights and live in a just society. Realising the high-untapped potential of the community and following strong belief in ensuring sustainability through community ownership, he introduced the concept of Community Based Organizations in all elements of CECOEDECON’s works. The organization under his leadership undertook many innovative and highly effective natural resource management initiatives making it popular amongst the local people as “AgroAction”. More than 500 Community Based Organizations (CBOs) promoted by Sharad Ji are actively working as development agents at community level. These CBOs now have the capacity to raise their concerns at different platforms. With the support of community based organization gradually the one district to 11 districts in Rajasthan and two districts in Madhaya Pradesh. While closely working with local community Mr. Joshi truly practiced bottom-up-development ensuring that all the efforts undertaken at CECOEDECON are based on an indepth understanding of the local issues and needs for the development of small farmers, women, tribal community, children and vulnerable groups of society.
CECOEDECON under the leadership of Sharad Ji, emerged as one of the recognized resource organizations on the emerging issues such as climate change and Sustainable Development. He was instrumental in ensuring meaningful engagements on these critical subjects by establishing constructive partnership with CSOs, parliamentarians, judiciary policy makers, media, women groups, farmers and youth by organizing their collectives, conducting awareness programs, public hearings; and state and national level consultations.
His association with rural women has been successful in bringing about change in the traditional patriarchal values. Today, more and more women are coming forward to take advantage of development programs. The community organization process he undertook, has significantly contributed in maintaining harmony and peace. When we look back, we see that his work has contributed towards the empowerment process of the rural communities created a demand for development services at the village level.
Distinguished achievements:
Joshi Ji’s organizational work has been instrumental in reviving livelihoods of more than 30,000 poor families in Rajasthan. The support provided through sustainable agriculture and microfinance programs, has helped in securing the livelihoods of more than 10,000 small and marginal farmers.
One of the major strategies of the organization under Sharad ji’s visionary leadership has been to build or strengthen community assets. CECOEDECON, under the guidance of was able to cretae more than 500 small and medium structures of soil and water conservation to reduce vulnerability of communities living in rain-fed areas of Rajasthan while ensuring support of CBOs.
Sharad Ji also worked on strengthening democratic processes. CECOEDECON trained more than 1000 elected women representatives of the Panchayati Raj System in Rajasthan. Similarly, he led many initiatives to bring the Dalit communities in the development mainstream. His work has also supported the developmental needs of the other socially excluded groups such as Wandering Blacksmiths (Gadulia Luhars) and communities involved in sex work (such as Nats). The work he has done in all these areas has been considered as model for larger replications.
CECOEDECON has been actively involved in the global development process on Sustainable Development Goals and Climate Change initiated by United Nations and put forward the local experience, knowledge and grass root level issues of vulnerable communities at global platforms under the leadership of Sharad ji.
Joshi Ji’s strong undertstanding of the nuances of grassroots development was widely recognized resulting in CECOEDECON’s association at crucial platforms including with Government of Madhya Pradesh as knowledge partner in organizing Vichar Mahakumbh, an International Conference on Living the Right Way. National consultation on climate change with the association of retired judges of Supreme Court and high courts was another innovative engagement, which was recognized by the legal fraternity. Recognizing his organizational work and experiences, CECOEDECON has been given space in number of committees at International, National, Regional and local level. CECOEDECON has also secured special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nation (UN). Mr. Bill Clinton, the then President of the US has also engaged with CECOEDECON’s work in year 2001.
Awards and honours:
Personal Life:
He is survived by his wife Manju Bala Joshi and daughters Vibhuti Joshi and Charu Joshi.
Publications:
A number of publications released by CECOEDECON have been developed under his guidance and support.
Reference:
Professor Sanjay Bhatt
Delhi School of Social work
Delhi
Mob: 91-9811516636
Shri Sharad Joshi, a leader of the development sector worked on livelihood security of marginal farmers and organizing communities has been recognized widely and has been accepted as a model. He realized that without having a sustainable development approach, it may be difficult to connect the vulnerable communities with mainstream development. He was passionate about helping in the rehabilitation of these communities, which led to the foundation of CECOEDECON in 1982.
He supported more than 60 small organizations by strengthening them for resource mobilization and program development. Sharad Ji always supported the voice of Indian civil society organizations and collectives to present the Indian perspective on a whole range of human rights, livelihood Security, climate change-related agenda and sustainable development both at local and the global level.
CECOEDECON under the leadership of Sharad Ji, emerged as one of the recognized resource organizations on the emerging issues such as climate change and Sustainable Development. He was instrumental in ensuring meaningful engagements on these critical subjects by establishing constructive partnership with CSOs, parliamentarians, judiciary policy makers, media, women groups, farmers and youth by organizing their collectives, conducting awareness programs, public hearings; and state and national level consultations.
