Annies Kanmani Joy Wiki, Age, Husband, Children, Family, Biography & More

Annies Kanmani Joy is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 2012  batch who has also served as a nurse in Kerala. She made headlines in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic for containing the transmission of the Coronavirus in the Kodagu district in Karnataka. In 2020, she was promoted as the deputy commissioner of the Kodagu district in Karnataka, India.

Wiki/Biography

Annies Kanmani Joy was born on Tuesday, 23 April 1985 (age 36 years; as of 2021) in village Pampakuda in the Ernakulam district of Kerala, India. Her zodiac sign is Taurus. Annies received school education from Fathima Matha School and Mount Carmel School in Kottayam, Kerala, India. She did B.Sc. in Nursing along with a one-year internship at the Trivandrum Medical College under the University of Kerala in 2009.

Physical Appearance

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Black

Family

Parents & Siblings

Annies Kanmani Joy’s father, Parappalil Joy, is a farmer. Her mother’s name is Leela. She has a sister named Elsa Aswathy Joy.

Husband & Children

Annies Kanmani Joy is married to Stephen Mani (an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer posted as the first secretary to the Indian Embassy in Washington DC in the USA). Her daughter’s name is Apoorva.

Career

In 2014, she was appointed as the Assistant Commissioner, Junior Scale, Sub Division Bidar, Karnataka. During the initial working years as an IAS officer in the Kodagu district in Karnataka, Annies Kanmani Joy refused more than 500 applications of converting the local agricultural land for commercial purposes. This denial was based on the recommendations given by an 18-member team of experts who visited the local area. The applications were made by the local business ventures to commercialize and expand the existing market. She held the designation of Chief Executive Officer, Under Secretary, Panchayats Deptt Tumkur, Karnataka in 2017. In 2018, landslides hit and struck the southern Kodagu district of Karnataka due to heavy rainfalls and floods. Ten local villagers of the Kogadu district died due to these landslides. Annies Joy, the DC of the district, along with the then Superintendent of Police Suman D Penneker and the then Zilla Panchayat CEO Lakshmi Priya, went on the ground to inspect and take care of the landslide-affected area in Thora. These ladies were honoured for their on-ground visits and response after the landslide tragedy. Annies, along with her fellow colleagues, was seen walking slowly and with heavy steps typically because of deteriorated conditions of the mud roads. She was inspecting the area to keep an eye on the search operations of the missing persons during the landslides.

Later on, in September 2019, Annies Kanmani Joy made an announcement in the Kodagu district of Karnataka that the spare Government land would be provided to the victims of the landslides who had lost their homes. Consequently, the unnecessary encroachments were demolished by the order of Annies Joy.

In 2019, Annies was promoted as the deputy commissioner of the Kodagu district in Karnataka, India.

The COVID pandemic hit India in 2019. In March 2020, Joy announced and imposed an early lockdown in the Kodagu district when the cases of the COVID-19 increased and spread across various states in India. COVID cases were started reporting in Kodagu district following which Annies joy ordered to shut down all tourist places in the district amid lockdown. This imposition was much earlier than the national lockdown was declared in India. The Kodagu district of Karnataka followed strict containment protocols during the pandemic lockdown. There were no cases reported in her area for consecutive 28 days. Annies Kanmani Joy received national recognition for playing such a responsible role in the successful break-in transmission of corona cases in Kodagu. In the year ending 2020, Annies Kanmani Joy banned the cutting and transportation of timber, and she battled against the notorious timber mafia in the Kodagu. In 2021, Annies Kanmani Joy went on official leave till the end of the year. She said in an interview that she would resume work at the end of the year 2021, and she was on leave to spend some time with her daughter and husband in the US. She said,

I have had a successful two-year tenure in Kodagu as Deputy Commissioner. Thank you everyone for the support and warmth provided. The beautiful memories in Kodagu will be cherished forever. I made the request for a break. I am leaving to spend time with my family and my daughter Apoorva. I will be returning to service later this year in a new role.”

Controversy

• In 2020, a journalist from Cauvery Times (a Kannada paper) wrote some articles against Annies and her work about the post-lockdown rules. These articles were published in the May and June editions of the newspaper in 2020. Annies filed an FIR against Vasanth, a reporter, and the editor of Cauvery Times (a Kannada paper) following which Annies was criticized for this step.

Facts/Trivia

• Annies Joy secured 65th rank out of 85 candidates of the general category in the civil services exam, 2011.

• In childhood, Annies Joy was a bright student who aspired to become a doctor, but she belonged to a very poor family that did not have enough money to buy books for her education.

• Annies Kanmani Joy is the second nurse ever to become an IAS officer in India after Alice Vaz R, a 2005 batch West Bengal cadre IAS officer.

• Annies Kanmani Joy scored rank 580 in the Civil Services Examination in 2010 on her first attempt. In an interview, she revealed that for the second attempt at the UPSC examination, she referred to her notes from the previous year’s examination and thoroughly read the current affairs. After her selection as an IAS, Joy attended the training for the Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) in Faridabad, Haryana.

• Annies gave an interview to a News channel after cracking the civil services examination in 2012. She said her parents motivated her to study hard, and she got the inspiration to appear in the Indian civil services from them. She explained that in her first attempt at the exam, she scored rank 580 as she gave it in a haphazard manner. She told the media that she already knew that she will do better on the second attempt, and eventually, scored the rank 65 in 2012.

•  After her successful second attempt with rank 65, Annies joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). She opted for psychology and Malayalam literature subjects for these civil services examinations.

• Annies was on Training at Junior Scale at LBSNAA Mussoorie from 2012 to 2014.

• In October 2020, Kodagu Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy received WhatsApp videos and messages claiming that she was being appreciated by the people of the Kodagu district in Karnataka as she had helped and guided the local people to manage and prevent the COVID-19 pandemic crises in the district. However, Joy denied the claim and said-
  

  That is not me in the video. Since yesterday (Monday), I am receiving endless messages about it but it’s not me! I was told the video was shared on a Facebook page and then it was downloaded and circulated on WhatsApp.”

  https://youtu.be/KlqYs0dK1kI

• Annies qualified the nursing exam but never joined and worked as a nurse.

• Annies Joy’s success story from being a nurse to an IAS officer and a poor village girl to a high profile administrator of an Indian district was covered by many renowned newspapers.

  The successful story of IAS Annies Kanmani Joy printed in a Newspaper article