Sunita Narain
Director

Portrait of An Artist as A Director

If you do not know her, you may well be pardoned at first sight to ignore that this lady is selected by a UK magazine amongst Top 100 public intellectuals on earth. It may be difficult to realize her tall stature at sight, where even her moderate heeled black sandals do not add much to her height.

Only till she speaks out. For, she blends refined passion of an intellectual with raw fire of an activist. Coherency of her arguments competes with zeal her voice resonates & gleam her pupil reflects.

Appointed Director of CSE in 2001, her colleagues find her a dynamic administrator who believes in leading from front.

Not always, however. At times, she remains at back & opts for darkness.

It's a chilly evening of 16th Dec. Occasion is of release of Cement Industry Rating by CSE. Chandra Bhushan makes the presentation on his laptop before packed auditorium as all eyes are fixed on large screen monitor. But, where is Sunita, Director CSE - Should be on podium. Surprisingly, her chair at podium remains vacant for more than an hour, time Bhushan takes to make presentation.

Bigger surprise waits to find that Sunita stands quietly, not even sits, with her back perched on wall looking at monitor screen, shifting weight of a leg to other.

She is expected to be at podium, if at all she wanted to be amongst audience, at least a chair could be taken. Instead, she opted to remain on toes. Literally.

And she is not even amongst audience. She stands alone in a dark corner of auditorium. Even this darkness does not hide visible concern at her face. Clad in dark blues, she watches monitor with restrained emotion as presentation unfolds on white cloth of screen.

It reminds of a great music composer who gets jitters at his hundredth performance, similar to those he had when he first played his tunes before public & dreamt of perfection. Since fine arts are closest form of perfection, human can ever achieve; it may well be that in its finest moments, science strives to be a piece of art.

16th Dec was one such eve, when Centre of Science reached its artistic zenith. Artist the performer made presentation & artist the Director led from behind.

Click here for IndianNGOs.com coverage on CSE

December 19, 2005

IndianNGOs.com goes to a journey of 25 years of CSE with Sunita Narain. Surprisingly, including other staff of CSE, Sunita remains engrossed in work virtually oblivious of this land mark. It is IndianNGOs.com, which breaks news of 25 years (journey) before to CSE.

When CSE began its journey in 1980, environment concerns rarely made news.
Did you ever imagine, within span of 25 years CSE would not only spearhead the environment movement in India but also give it a decisive turn?
CSE is & was Late Anil's dream. None of us ever thought about it in 1980 but Anil was extremely clear about critical need of an institution, which would play role of an independent & fearless watchdog & undertake research to change views & mindset of society. These were three core things, Anil believed in 1980 & he created CSE out of these beliefs. I always say, we are mere foot soldiers. Our work is to carry forward what he laid out much earlier.

Let me take you to early 1980s. In 1982, First citizen's report is published & captures nation's imagination. In 1985, Second Citizen's repot comes out & then PM, Rajiv Gandhi invites Anilji to make presentation before parliamentary committees. Subsequently, Anilji delivers Fifth World Conservation Lecture at London in 1985. I believe you were beginning your career then.
What was the general mood in CSE in those days?
Many things you said, I was merely a small part of. I watched these events unfolding before me. 1980-1985 was a very defining period for us. In early 1980s, conservationist concern formed central environment concern in India. Everything was governed by conservationist approach. We had movements like Silent Valley, Project Tiger where protection was key word. But it didn't suffice requirements of environment movement. It was Anil, who with his understanding of Chipko movement pointed out that environment movement goes beyond protection & conservation of trees & tigers. There were issues of poor people & their right to survive in their environment that environment was about building a subsistence economy.

It was an amazing feeling in 1985, when Anil was asked by Sri Rajiv Gandhi to address entire cabinet & then parliamentary committees. I accompanied him, sat in parliament as a spectator.

Post 1985 period, hence was very fascinating period of India's development history. Environment got increasingly linked with development. Lots of work was done including Afforestation board, protecting river Ganga( Ganga Action Plan). Resistance to industrial disasters also grew in that period. We had Bhopal Gas tragedy which exposed our poor preparation to handle industrial disasters. There were other conflicts as well. In Cheliyar conflict, people protested against pollution, in Narmada, protests were for dams, in Chilka particular kind of fisheries was opposed. These events brought to public memory that unless concerns of common man are addressed conflicts would grow.

Period of 1980-1985 was critical for us as it established that environment was not fad of some people but a key development concern. During this period, a debate emerged & intellectual base was built up for environment issues which accorded legitimacy to environment movement.

Which way environment movement turned in 1990s?
Movement lost its way in 1990s.1990s was a period of coalition governments. Many environmental issues got institutionalized. We created concern for these issues in 1980s & they received general acceptance. Ministries & Departments were created as schemes & programmes were launched. However, environment movement lost its way to poor management by government as it lost its ability to fight & change the system.

Where did CSE find itself in 1990s, when gains of 1980s were being frittered away?
CSE found itself trying to chase its own creations. We started Down To Earth(DTE) in 1992. Anil was a journalist. He believed that best way to change society is through voice representing concerns of society. However, CSE lost lots of time over DTE. Running a magazine required enormous time than we conceived. We did not have huge money & always needed good people to work. At times a critical staff would leave & it became difficult to find his replacement. But when you start a magazine, you can not postpone it. We were, hence, walking a tread mill with issues of Down To Earth. One finished, another took off. I believe we lost some ground in that period.

1996 onwards, to some extent, we tried to recoup it by launching campaigns. In 1996, we launched Right to Clean Air campaign. In 1998, we launched Community Water management campaign with Dying Wisdom. Next 5 years of CSE were very important for it as an institution as we had to show that we were an organization with a difference. Right to Clean Air campaign, hence, was very important for us. If you remember, in 1990s pollution was a non issue. So first step for us was to make people understand that it affects their lungs, bring Doctors together, develop political understanding of issue. Next step was to search for technological options like CNG as an alternative & advocating for CNG.

For me, 1996 onwards has been most fulfilling part of CSE history. It defined who we are today. It transformed us from being just writers to advocates. Initially we would write something & leave it to society to decide. But not we wanted others to know what we believed in. We were governed by desperation to change society & this desperation defined us.

Desperation?
Yeah. CSE is very desperate organization. We are desperate for change & desperate to get things done. We are very small organization, but size does not matter before desperation.

What are the turning points in CSE journey?
Every phase has been a landmark for us. First phase was from 1980-1985, when environment debate was initiated on a major level in country. From 1986-1992 began our second phase, when we formulated policies. We not only explored the problems but looked for alternative solutions as well. In 1986, Anil & I completed our first book, Towards Green villages. Then we did a book on Global warming: An unequal world. It was a prescriptive phase of CSE. There was also a political environment for understanding these issues.

We started Down To Earth in 1992 & it marked beginning of another phase. However, we lost time in first five years for managing Down To Earth. .

Down To Earth became both obsession & challenge for us. Till date, most of us spend night at office, when Down To Earth goes in press. Though, then I often argued with Anil over DTE as it consumed lots of our time & energy, but today I feel grateful to him. He often suggested that we had to create a medium for us. Today, 15 years down the line DTE becomes vehicle for ideas, gives us enormous power, respect & credibility.

Next phase was from 1996 to early 2000s & which continues till date. This was the period of direct campaigns. We decided to be public advocates & started Clean Air campaigns, began working on water, coca cola & pesticide issue came up.

Presumably, this is most productive phase of CSE.
Well, it is maturing of an institution. But, it could not have matured if it was not given birth at first instance itself. I always say we are reaping what Anil had sown earlier. We are not creators. We should not to be arrogant to believe that this institution is because of us.

I believe it to be your modesty when you credit everything to Anilji.
No. Please be very clear. I am very factual. CSE is Anil's dream.

Coming to specific issues, you headed Tiger Task Force. Valmik Thapar, member of Task Force dissented on Force's report. Nirmal Ghosh of Indianjungles.com terms
CSE as pro people & against wild life conservation.
It is very unfortunate. Issue is not that you love tigers & I do not. Any democracy has diverse opinions.

I believe let us begin with mutual respect. I have lots of respect for Mr. Thapar & Mr. Ghosh. At Task Force, I always pointed to Indian reality. When model of Tiger conservation was created, it was felt that we would free up large area of this country for tigers to roam. It is obviously Western model of wild life conservation, where you have large areas of wilderness & animals roam free. India has on other hand very densely populated forests, where local population co exists with wild life. In India, we have two options. First is to carve out certain areas for tigers only as suggested by Mr. Thapar. I did respect this passion & went half way that if you feel that is the only way to protect tigers, let us create such space. However, we should also be clear that entire India can not be protected in similar manner & there have to be other areas where human tiger co existence is imperative.

Indian tiger can not be protected in isolation with Indian reality.
Exactly. That's a very good way to put it.

Coming to issue of pesticides in bottled water. What was the starting point of research in this case? Did you undertake research on your own or you received complaints of such effect & then initiated research?
CSE is very blessed organization to have a research laboratory, which is at the core of inquisitive journalism. We had poor experience with both government & private labs. Government persons excused behind procedural difficulties & private ones charged exorbitant. So in 2000 we decided to set up our lab for issues concerning our work. We tested drinking water of Delhi for pesticides. We collected samples from different municipal taps, but there was no trend in these. At times, pesticides were found, at others not. In this state of confusion, some one amongst us suggested trying bottled water & surprisingly, we found pesticides in it. I remember in same room, where you & I sit now, my colleagues showed me pesticides detail. Still we were confused at pesticides found in bottled water. Then, we went to bottled water factories to collect samples of raw water. Off course, all this was done as investigative journalism. Surprisingly, raw water thus collected matched completely with bottled water. Then we realized pesticides in bottled water came out of raw water.

But, we were still surprised that why government did not find pesticides in it & we found that government had little regulations for pesticides.

Till this point, we had no plans of testing soft drinks. However, we heard that there was huge pressure from big companies on government to avoid pesticide standards. We were confused as to why these companies with huge set up resisted pesticide checks. Then one day, a senior official of Pepsi, perhaps vice president came to meet me & lectured that how anti developmental we were. Suddenly, our curiosity took best out of it. Was there some bigger story here?

Then we checked soft drinks. And I can swear you that at that time we did not know that there were only two companies who manufactured entire range soft drinks in India, Pepsi & Coke. And we found pesticides in both of them. Still, we did not know what was actually unusual as pesticide might well be the ingredient of these bottles.

Then we thought of testing non Indian bottles. We smuggled soft drinks from US embassy, manufactured in US. And there were no pesticides in that. At that point, we released our study of pesticides in 12 major brands of soft drinks.

Surprisingly, even though Pepsi took back its affidavit from court, they are still in market. And government is silent on it.
It is very shameful. But, what can anyone do if government is spineless. And mind you, I am willing to be quoted on record that this is a spineless & gutless government when it comes to these companies. It does not protect consumer interest. It succumbs again & again to interests of these companies. Precisely therefore, I argue that in this new era of privatization, we need even stronger government.

What regulation do you propose for soft drink companies?
Simple. I demand mandatory standards for these companies. When you buy any product, say a watch, there are standards attached to it. But there are no such standards on soft drinks. I just want such standards to be set for these companies.

You have also worked extensively on rain water.
Water campaign has been one of the most satisfying campaigns for us. It came to us by sheer chance. In late 1980s I & Anil were traveling to North Eastern areas like Shillong & Cherapunji, we found a big sign board at Cherapunji, "water scarce area, please use it carefully", which was surprising in an area of 14000mm annual rainfall. Then we went to Jaisalmair & we found an incredible fort in desert with less than 100mm annual rainfall, with no evidence in history that it was ever evacuated due to lack of water. In further deserts of Rajashtan, we met remarkable gentleman Anupam Mishra & we together traveled various areas of Rajashtan. On our way to Bikaner, a unique structure caught our attention. We wondered what this Stupa like structure could be. It turned out to be a Kundi, where people harvested their rainwater & covered it with a beautiful structure. From here onwards, CSE journey to understand water began. We realized how rich India was in terms of water harvesting & how it was completely decimated in course of time.

Incidentally, British were responsible for this destruction.
Old gazetteers show British called India a Hydraulic society. They could not understand Indian society which created so much of wealth on so little water. They brought practices of managing water which were completely alien to Indian conditions. They nationalized & centralized water, created bureaucracies, took over power of community to themselves.

But saddening aspect is that during 200 years of British period we lost our history, wisdom, confidence that we can find our own answers.

Are poor & women necessarily the worst victims of environmental degradation?
Your question is clever. They do not have to be necessarily the victims, but they are worst victims at present. They need not be as they live on environment, it is in their interest to protect environment. If we create a situation where women are given charge of environment, their conditions improves.

CSE pointed out irregularities in audits of firms like Ernst & Young. What alternatives do you propose of CDM( Carbon Development Mechanism)?
I am not in favor of CDM per se. CDM was developed as a financial trading mechanism.

I believe in entitlement of every individual over atmosphere. To manage common atmosphere, we need common entitlement & rights of every human being over global atmosphere.

Each country must have a quota & trading must be allowed within that quota. CDM is a poor way of doing it. My approach is two fold. Let us see, how CDM can work & also simultaneously look for answers to CDM. And here, I firmly believe that we have to drive CDM so that it becomes effective for us. Western countries must learn to pay for it, which they do not want today. They want Cheap Development Mechanism which is becoming a Corrupt Development Mechanism.

One key word you already mentioned, Desperation. What else drives CSE? What is CSE model of governance?
When it comes to efficiency & management, we borrow best of corporate world. We have clock in & clock out time for us. We have very tough management. We prepare monthly reports & performance assessments. We combine tight management system with passion of an NGO as we work with a definite purpose. And this work & purpose are always directed for change.

Where do you find CSE 25 years from now?
I do not know. I can only tell about tomorrow. I have to do an editorial tomorrow, finish a paper. I have very tough schedule next week. There are lots of strategic programmes as well. (smiles).

- Ashutosh Bhardwaj