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 Vandana Shiva completed her Ph.D. in the Philosophy of Science in 1978. She then did research at the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore until 1982, when she left to set up the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy in her home town of Dehra Dun in the foothills of the Himalaya. Shiva was born in the valley of Dehradun, to a father who was the conservator of forests and a farmer mother with a love for nature. Her mother was highly educated, but chose to be a farmer because she believed that the highest state of human evolution is to be a peasant. As an activist Vandana Shiva has coordinated, supported and learned from grassroots networks on a wide range of issues across India.
As an advocate, especially in international meetings, she has proved one of the most articulate spokespersons for counter-development in favour of people-centred, participatory processes. As an intellectual she has produced a stream of important books and articles which have contributed to both debate and action on the agenda of development.
Her Foundation is an informal network of researchers working in support of people’s environmental actions. Shiva, currently based in New Delhi, is author of over 300 papers in leading scientific and technical journals. She also participated in the non-violent Chipko Movement during the 1970s. The Movement, whose main participants were women, adopted the tactic of hugging trees to prevent their felling. Its name comes from a word meaning “embrace”: in fact, the women practiced satagraha (non-violent resistance), interposing their bodies between the trees and the contractors’ axes. Over the past 10 years she has built a new movement called Navdanya for the conservation of indigenous seeds, biodiversity and farmers’ rights. Shiva sees biodiversity as intimately linked to both cultural diversity and knowledge diversity.
Shiva is one of the leaders of the International Forum on Globalization (along with Jerry Mander, Edward Goldsmith, Ralph Nader and Jeremy Rifkin), and a figure of the global solidarity movement. She has fought for changes in the practice and paradigms of agriculture and food, arguing for the wisdom of many traditional practices.
In 1993, Shiva received the Right Livelihood Award (also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize) “for placing women and ecology at the heart of modern development discourse”.
Other awards she has received include the Global 500 Award of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in 1993, and the Earth Day International Award of the United Nations (UN) for her dedicated commitment to the preservation of the planet as demonstrated by her actions and leadership, and by setting an example for the rest of the world.
sdVision has asked to Vandana Shiva to illustrate her point of view on the future of sustainability in the world with specific regard to the social aspects of our scenario.
 Download Vandana Shiva's interview
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