Counted among the most proactive and dynamic thinkers of the country Vandana Shiva who claims to be a born ecologist, is a trained physicist and took to activism by choice.

Having spearheaded the formation of Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers’ rights, Dr. Shiva is also the director of Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy. She is a renowned author and h as won several awards for her contribution to the cause of preserving biodiversity.

“I was born into a family which was closely associated with forests and as a student was part of the famous ‘Chipko Movement’. My mother, when we came to India after Partition, took up farming instead of accepting the high position offered to her in the government. So love and understanding of the importance of nature and its vital link with human development was something that we grew up with. Later in life I learnt about the value of bio-diversity. I raised questions about the socio-economic changes that were taking place around me. I started thinking like a scientist about it, which is when I understood the intrinsic relation between human development and food security,” says Dr. Shiva.

Stepping away from academic and joining activism was a decision Dr. Shiva claims to have taken consciously.

“We have to understand that sovereignty over our biodiversity is an important right and that farmers are the soul of our economy. Tell me how can India, which is primarily an agriculture-based economy, forget 80 per cent of its population and claim that we are making progress.”

“This is one of our biggest challenges today. Land is being stolen from farmers and being turned into industrial pockets. Our development ignores 80 per cent of its people; politicians and planners want the resources of these people but want nothing to do with their rehabilitation, welfare or development. What India is losing in the process is our ability to live as a society. People whose land has been taken over are being pushed into organised and unorganised crime and violence and this growing menace is something that the government refuses to look into.”

But Dr. Shiva believes that it is the ancient legacy of democracy unique to our country that will help and sustain us.

“Recent history has been witness to the fact that whenever there has been brutal injustice, people have got up and said no. Recently Nandigram has been a classic case. What people of Nandigram are doing today is ‘satyagraha’. In Delhi there is another ‘satyagraha’ brewing with the State Government turning the river Yamuna into a `nullah’ with developmental activities being planned on its flood plains,” says Dr. Shiva.

Food security and its relation to India’s bargaining powers with economies of the world, the ill-effects of climatic changes and growing malnourishment in the country are all areas that Dr. Shiva has been working on.

“What is happening in the country today is that the government is taking away fertile land in the name of industrial development without realising that they are virtually throwing away food security, possession of which is an unmatched safety net. There is simply no other country in the world that can feed a nation our size. Food sovereignty is vital, we are the largest farming community in the world and that is what provides strength to our economy, we can’t throw that away,” she says.

Dr. Shiva also speaks about the role of the youth in her movement. “Unfortunately for the youth of urban India, privileges have come to them at wrong moments of history. Their life seems to revolve around `I am because I consume’ notion. The spread of the outsourcing prosperity has taught them not to look beyond their next shopping spree. As for the rural youth they are a confused lot. For them, too much seems to be happening around them too soon. Also, the youth today, not having understood the benefits of having the safety of food security, may grow up to be the generation that will fuel the violence and confusion. So in my work I make it a point to reach out and involve the youth, they are after all our future. What we do today will be how they live their tomorrow.”

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