Sunita Narain (born 1961) is an Indian

environmentalist An environmentalist is a person who is concerned with and/or advocates for the protection of the environment. An environmentalist can be considered a supporter of the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that se ...

and

political activist A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...

as well as a major proponent of the

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

concept of sustainable development. Narain is director general of the India-based research institute for the

Centre for Science and Environment Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) is a not-for-profit public interest research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, India. Established in 1980, CSE works as a think tank on environment-development issues in India, poor planning, ...

, director of the Society for Environmental Communications, and editor of the fortnightly magazine, '' Down To Earth''. In 2016 Narain was named on ''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Ma ...

s list of ''

100 Most Influential People ''Time'' 100 (often stylized as ''TIME'' 100) is an annual listicle of the 100 most influential people in the world, assembled by the American news magazine ''Time''. First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American academics, po ...

''. She appeared alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the documentary '' Before The Flood'' (2016), discussing the impact of climate change on the

Monsoon in India The Monsoon of South Asia is among several geographically distributed global monsoons. It affects the Indian subcontinent, where it is one of the oldest and most anticipated weather phenomena and an economically important pattern every year fro ...

and how it affects farmers.

Early life

Sunita Narain was born in 1961 in New Delhi, and was the oldest of four sisters. Her father Raj Narain, who died when Narain was 8, had been a

freedom fighter A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...

, and then established a handicrafts business. Her mother, Usha Narain, took over the business and raised the siblings. The income from the business provided the family with a comfortable lifestyle. In 1979, Sunita Narain joined the student anti-logging activist group Kalpavriksh. she told Marcello Rossi of the '' Smithsonian'' magazine that this gave her a new direction in life, as she realised that "the crux weren't the trees, but the rights of people over those trees". She completed her graduation by correspondence from

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

(1980–83).

Career

Narain began working with the Centre for Science and Environment, one of India's first environmental

Non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

s whilst still a student at the University of Delhi, working with the founder Anil Agarwal. Narain became the Deputy Director of the CSE in 1993, and was appointed as the Director in 2000. Under her leadership, Centre for Science and Environment exposed the high level of pesticides present in American brands of soft drinks such as Coke and Pepsi. Narain, following the scientific consensus on climate change, attributes blame for the climate crisis to the fossil-fuel based economies of Western countries, and advocates that India should seek an alternative route to economic growth. Under her leadership, Centre for Science and Environment exposed the high level of pesticides present in American brands of soft drinks such as Coke and Pepsi. In 2012, she wrote the 7th State of India's Environment Reports, Excreta Matters, an analysis of urban

India's water supply India faces challenges ranging from Water source, sourcing water for its megacities to its Water distribution system, distribution network which is largely Intermittent water supply, intermittent with continuous distribution networks just beginn ...

and

pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...

. In 2016 Narain was named on ''

s list of ''

''. Novellist

Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, ''

wrote for ''Time'' that "A paper that she co-authored in 1991 remains to this day the foundational charter of the global climate-justice movement ... Narain has also consistently opposed the kind of elite conservationism that blames environmental problems on the poor." Narain appeared alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in the documentary '' Before The Flood'' (2016) and talked about the impact of climate change on the

and how it affects farmers. In 2008 Narain delivered the K R Narayanan Oration on "Why Environmentalism Needs Equity: Learning from the

environmentalism of the poor Environmentalism of the poor is a social movement that arises from environmental conflicts when impoverished people struggle against powerful state or private interests that threaten their livelihood, health, sovereignty, and culture. Part of th ...

to build our common future". In 2020, she served on "A future for the world's children?", a

WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to ...

-'' Lancet'' Commission, co-chaired by

Helen Clark Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th prime minister of New Zealand from 1999 to 2008, and was the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. She was ...

and

Awa Coll-Seck Awa Marie Coll-Seck (born 1951 in Dakar, Senegal) is as Senegalese infectious diseases specialist and politician who served as Minister of Health of Senegal from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2012 to 2017. She also served as former Executive Directo ...

Personal life

Narain was injured in a traffic collision while cycling near the

All India Institute of Medical Sciences The All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is a group of autonomous government public medical universities of higher education under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare , Government of India. These institutes ha ...

on the morning of 20 October 2013. Her bicycle was hit by a car while she was cycling to Lodhi Gardens from her home in

Green Park Green Park, officially The Green Park, is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the southern part – the core part – of the City of Westminster, Central London, but before that zone was extended to the north, to take in Marylebo ...

. The car driver did not stop and Narain was taken to AIIMS by a passerby. She sustained facial wounds and orthopaedic injuries. She was discharged 11 days later, after having reconstructive surgery on her nose, and two metal rods implanted to support her broken wrists.

Awards

In 2004, Narain received the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Women Mediaperson, for " for bringing environmental issues to the mainstream". The following year, she was awarded the

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. and the Centre for Science and Environment, under her leadership, was awarded the

Stockholm Water Prize Presented annually since 1991, the Stockholm Water Prize is an award that recognizes outstanding achievements in water related activities. Over the past three decades, Stockholm Water Prize Laureates have come from across the world and represente ...

. She was granted an honorary Doctor of Science by the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, ...

in 2009. and as conferred with the Raja-Lakshmi Award for the same year from

Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation The Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation is an Indian charitable trust that promotes arts, sciences, literature, medicine, journalism, humanities and other intellectual pursuits and to honour distinguished persons in these fields. Established in 1979 in C ...

, Chennai. In 2016, Narain was named on

's list of ''100 Most Influential People'', and received the International Association for Media and Communication Research Climate Change Communication Research in Action Award She was an

Edinburgh Medal The Edinburgh Medal is a scientific medal given at the Edinburgh International Science Festival since 1989. The Edinburgh Medal is an award given each year to men and women recognized for their contributions to science and technology and whose prof ...

recipient in 2020. Narain has also been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Lausanne, and the University of Alberta.

Publications

*''Towards Green Villages'' (1989) *''Global Warming in an Unequal World: A case of environmental colonialism'' (1990) *''Towards a Green World: Should environmental management be built on legal conventions or

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

?'' (1992) *''

Green Politics Green politics, or ecopolitics, is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. Wall 2010. p. 12-13. It b ...

: Global Environmental Negotiations'' *''Dying Wisdom: Rise, Fall and Potential of India's Water Harvesting Systems''. *''The State of India's Environment, The Citizens' Fifth Report'' *''Making Water Everybody's Business: the practice and policy of water harvesting''.Maggie Black, New Internationalist (1 October 2007) *''Conflicts of interest: my journey through India’s Green Movement'' (Penguin Random House India, 2017) was praised by reviewer Runa Sarker as "an excellent record of arain and the CSE'sefforts and the outcomes, and how it has shaped policy", although what Sarker felt that in some respects the book failed to address the complexities involved, and that how "the conflicts of interest deeper and wider than projected" in the book.

References

External links

* *
Indian Environmentalist Sunita Narain on US Climate Policy
- video report by ''

Democracy Now! ''Democracy Now!'' is an hour-long American TV, radio, and Internet news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman (who also acts as the show's executive producer), Juan González, and Nermeen Shaikh. The show, which airs live each weekday at ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Narain, Sunita Living people Recipients of the Padma Shri in other fields Indian environmentalists Indian women environmentalists 1961 births Activists from Delhi Indian political writers Indian women political writers 20th-century Indian women writers Writers from Delhi 20th-century Indian journalists Indian editors Indian women editors 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian journalists Women writers from Delhi Journalists from Delhi