Dr. Milind Bokil

Dr. Milind Bokil is a writer and sociologist from Pune. He was the Country Director for Oxfam-Australia till June 2009 and prior to that has been associated with civil society organizations for more than 25 years. He was involved into the students and youth movement led by Jayprakash Narayan in the 70s. Taking inspiration from this movement, he spent some years of his youth with tribal communities in Western India. His doctoral work dealt with the issue of collective management of water resources in drought prone region wherein he analyzed the common property resource use in the context of growth versus equity debate. He has done extensive work with tribal communities in Maharashtra and his other research interests centre on natural resource management, rural development, education, gender issues, migrant children and disaster management. He has published a number of articles on these issues. He has been writing fiction and non-fiction in Marathi and has published more than ten books (short stories, novels, travelogues and sociological articles). Recently, a Marathi movie has been made on his novel, ‘Shala’ which has earned more than 40 awards nationally and internationally.