Sr. Joicy Joy, a member of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, uses her expertise in the legal system to safeguard and advance the rights of the powerless, especially indigenous people in India.
The tribesmen are mostly small farmers in Wayanad, a district in the northeast state of Kerala home to a number of aboriginal tribes, including the Paniyas, Kurichyas, and Adiyars.
Her extensive legal work led the indigenous people to rediscover their dignity and rights.
Sr. Joicy has handled 105 cases of domestic violence, 30 family-related cases, and 17 cases of land dispute in the past year. She also offered legal advice in 117 counselling sessions that involved wide-scale advocacy for human rights.
People exploit the tribesmen’s lack of education.
Laborers pledge to build, or rebuild, their homes, but they just take their money and abandon the construction unfinished, leaving families homeless.
The indigenous people are not abreast of their legitimate rights and liberties. Sr. Joicy educates them on their human rights to emancipate them from exploitation.
She teaches them to settle disputes between family members and neighbors amicably or to seek justice in court when the case requires the intervention of one.
“In court, the case is about money,” Sr. Joicy said. “Here [amicable settlement], it is about family.”
The nun reaches out to the indigenous people in their community to serve them.
“The tribal men and women have little options for travel, they can’t get here; we go to them, to their hamlets,” Sr. Joicy told Matters India, an independent religious news service.
The work of Sr. Joicy for the indigenous people in India is backed by lay volunteers who share her advocacy for the poor.
Her legal ministry for the tribesmen came about when she handled a case involving the death of a woman from the Paniya tribe in Wayanad. The case concluded in the compensation of the woman’s death to her family by the government.
The success of that case made her confidence in the transformative power of legal advocacy stronger.
Her appointment as a legal counsellor under the Kerala state government’s women and child department broadened the reach of her advocacy. This appointment empowered her to address domestic violence and provide free legal representation and psychological assistance to victims of abuse.
As designated to oversee five panchayats [local political systems], Sr. Joicy exercises greater authority to arbitrate in legal matters.
Pope Francis, speaking on the occasion of International Human Rights Day last year, invited the people to join the efforts in preserving and advancing peace.
“The commitment to human rights is never finished,” he said, encouraging the faithful to join the “men and women who have worked wisely and patiently for peaceful coexistence.”
