SUSTAINABILITY INTEGRAL TO INCLUSIVE GROWTH
SUNITA NARAIN RECEIVES LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The conferment of the SKOCH Challenger Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunita Narain was more than a recognition of an environmentalist. For those reflecting on her journey at the 109th SKOCH Summit, it acknowledged a body of work that has changed how India discusses the environment, development and equity.

Poonam Mutreja, who has known Narain for decades, identified her strength as an unusual blend of clarity and courage. Narain, she said, can cut through a problem and uncover “the questions that lie beneath” it. Under her leadership, the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Down To Earth have not only chronicled the environmental change; they have also supported problems and solutions with evidence. For Mutreja, the greater significance of Narain’s work lies in
its humanism.

Environmentalism, is not just about protecting nature. It is about equity, health and ultimately, justice. Narain’s insistence on bringing humanity into science, while remaining grounded in people’s lived realities, explains why her work goes beyond conventional environmental advocacy.

Sunita Narain has given India’s environmental conscience a powerful voice, making sustainability inseparable from equity and human dignity. Through research, investigation and public advocacy, she has brought air pollution, water, sanitation, waste, food safety and climate justice into mainstream policy. Her enduring contribution is redefining development around public health, livelihoods, accountability and environmental justice.

Sanjay Kumar offered another measure of her influence. Recalling the environmental discourse, he said discussions on the environment seemed incomplete without Narain’s name. What distinguished her contribution was the attention to detail and research she brought to it. His call for more evidence in policymaking echoed the approach he credited her with bringing environmental debate on the national agenda. India, he argued, needs more leaders capable of imagining connections and bringing disparate concerns together.

Bharat Lal widened the frame further. Honouring Narain, he said, meant honouring “a certain idea” and a body of work that touched many lives. At a time when the environment was hardly fashionable, she devoted her life to air, water, forests and public health. Today, the society has entered a “period of consequences,” evident in water scarcity, polluted air and natural disasters.

The real tribute would be to translate decades of advocacy into outcomes – cleaner air, better sanitation and safe drinking water, especially for the poorest, who bear the highest cost of environmental failure.