Sunita Narain, 48, Director, CSE
As an activist, I am never happy with what happens, I always want more, says Sunita Narain, whose work has prompted industry representatives to sit on a dharna outside her office, or to file Rs 100- crore defamation notices. The Joint Parliamentary Committee that Narain faced led to a report parts of which are now being implemented. Sample: the Food Safety and Standards Authority and the cleaning up of pesticide registration system. Sunita has followed up with more campaigns. And she believes the more stink it generates, the better it is. "Noise is part of change in society. Otherwise, we all want to change by working internally decisions between a few people. That should not be the way it has to be done. Society must feel it, and it must be divided and then come together on such issues.
What does power mean to you?
Getting something done for the right reasons, and in a way that can bring change.
My most memorable experience at workplace.
When I first faced the fourth Joint Parliamentary Committee for the pesticide controversy. It took me 20 minutes to turn them to my side. Their assumption was that we were basically doing the study as an extortion racket to get money out of Coke and Pepsi.
New lessons learnt in 2009.
It is getting tougher to bring about change. Bringing change is highly contested in a society which is highly inequitable.
What next?
Same battles climate change, water, sewage. - Shalini S. Dagar
Resource: Business Today