She Sustains India: Women Driving the Nation’s Grassroots Green Transformation

By- Kalpana Sahoo

Across India’s villages, forests, coastlines, and urban settlements, women are emerging as powerful agents of climate resilience and community sustainability. They are not only managing households, conserving resources, and protecting the environment, but also designing solutions that global policy-makers are now learning from. Their leadership is rooted in lived experience — the daily responsibility of securing water, fuel, food, and livelihood — which gives them a close relationship with natural ecosystems and a deep understanding of sustainability at the ground level. 

As climate change intensifies, India’s women have moved from being vulnerability targets to becoming changemakers, proving that empowering women is one of the strongest strategies for building a sustainable future. Their local actions — born out of necessity, intuition, and community commitment — are becoming global inspirations. They demonstrate that climate solutions do not always originate from laboratories or high-tech industries; many emerge from the courage, creativity, and resilience of women working in fields, forests, coastlines, and informal settlements. 

 

Empowering Communities Through Everyday Sustainability 

Women are often the first to face the consequences of resource scarcity, crop failures, droughts, and extreme weather events. This everyday confrontation with climate stress pushes them to adapt, innovate, and create sustainable alternatives. 

When a woman switches from traditional firewood to biogas, she reduces household pollution, protects nearby forests, and improves her family’s health. When she starts rainwater harvesting, it not only secures water for her home but replenishes the village groundwater table. These small actions transform entire communities — and ultimately shape how policymakers think about decentralized sustainability. 

In many rural regions, women’s self-help groups (SHGs) have taken up recycling, organic farming, collective solar energy projects, and water conservation. Their work is grounded in community cooperation — a model increasingly promoted in global sustainability frameworks such as the SDGs and UN climate adaptation strategies. 

 

Women as Environmental Guardians: Real Stories from Across India 

1. The Chipko Legacy — Protecting Forests Through Collective Action 

The Chipko Movement of the 1970s, led largely by rural women in Uttarakhand such as Gaura Devi, remains one of India’s most iconic examples of women-led environmental activism. When commercial loggers threatened local forests, women hugged the trees, refusing to move even when threatened. Their bravery forced the government to implement stricter forest protection measures. 

Global inspiration: Chipko became a model for forest rights movements worldwide and influenced environmental justice frameworks in Latin America and Africa. 

 

2. The Women of Kudumbashree, Kerala — Building a Green Economy 

Kudumbashree, one of the world’s largest women-led poverty eradication missions, has empowered over 4 million women across Kerala. These women run organic farming collectives, manage waste recycling systems, operate canteens, produce biofertilizers, and lead micro-enterprises. 

A human story:

Sreedevi, a small farmer from Thrissur, once struggled to feed her family. Through Kudumbashree, she learned organic farming, formed a neighbourhood collective, and today cultivates vegetables on leased land using drip irrigation and composting. Her group not only earns sustainably but also supplies organic produce to schools and local markets. 

Global inspiration: Kudumbashree has been studied by UNDP, World Bank, and African governments seeking to replicate community-based women’s entrepreneurship. 

 

3. Rajasthan’s Water Warriors — Rebuilding Lost Rivers 

In Rajasthan’s arid districts, thousands of women have revived traditional water systems like johads and taankas. In villages such as Laporiya and Alwar, women’s groups worked with local NGOs to build earthen check dams and restore groundwater. 

Human story:

Kamla Devi from Alwar previously walked 5 km daily for water. After joining a women’s water collective, she helped dig contour trenches and build johads. Within three years, the village filled again, cattle returned, and farming revived. 

Global inspiration: Their work has inspired water-restoration programs in Kenya and Ethiopia that study India’s community water structures. 

 

4. Odisha’s Women Seaweed Farmers — Climate-Resilient Livelihoods 

Along Odisha’s coastline, women are cultivating seaweed — a highly sustainable crop that absorbs carbon, requires no freshwater, and supports marine ecosystems. SHGs led by women like Gitanjali from Ganjam have pioneered seaweed farming as a climate-resilient income source. 

Global inspiration: Seaweed farming by women in India is now showcased in global climate conferences as a model for green livelihood creation. 

 

5. Assam’s Forest Guards — The “Hargila Army” Saving Rare Birds 

In Assam, a group of rural women known as the Hargila Army saved the endangered Greater Adjutant Stork from near extinction. Led by conservationist Purnima Devi Barman, these women turned a once-hated bird into a symbol of pride by protecting nesting trees, rescuing chicks, and educating communities. 

Human story:

Women who were once embarrassed by the bird’s presence now host “baby showers” for stork hatchlings and celebrate “Stork Festivals,” turning conservation into culture. 

Global inspiration: Their model of women-led species protection has inspired similar groups in Nepal, Thailand, and Cambodia. 

Modern Leaders and Innovators 

• Jamuna Tudu, "The Lady Tarzan of Jharkhand": Jamuna Tudu transformed her village in Jharkhand into a model of green vigilance. She, along with a group of women, actively patrols the forests to protect them from timber smugglers, helping conserve wildlife and natural resources. 

• Dr. Vandana Shiva: A globally renowned ecofeminist and food sovereignty advocate, Dr. Shiva founded the Navdanya movement in 1991 to promote traditional farming practices and protect seed diversity from corporate biopiracy and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). She established over 100 community seed banks across India to help farmers. 

• Sunita Narain: As the Director-General of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Sunita Narain has been instrumental in shaping India's environmental policies on air and water pollution, waste management, and sustainable development. Her research on rainwater harvesting has led to significant policy changes. 

• The Lion Queens of Gir: In Gujarat, an all-women team of forest guards and rescuers forms the backbone of Asiatic lion conservation in the Gir National Park. Against all odds, these women conduct numerous daring rescue operations involving big cats and other wildlife, proving that passion and resilience are key to conservation success. 

• Tulsi Gowda, "Encyclopedia of the Forest": A veteran environmentalist from Karnataka, Tulsi Gowda has an encyclopedic knowledge of forest species and has planted over 30,000 trees over six decades. She received the prestigious Padma Shri award for her tireless conservation efforts.  

These stories demonstrate how women, from remote villages to policy boardrooms, are driving the environmental revolution in India, often drawing on traditional wisdom to propose resilient solutions.  

 

 

Women in Agriculture: Nurturing Soil, Seeds, and Sustainability 

Indian women form 75–80% of the agricultural workforce, especially in small farms. Their role in sustainable agriculture is significant because they preserve biodiversity through traditional seeds, natural pesticides, mixed cropping, and kitchen gardens. 

Seed Sovereignty and Crop Diversity 

In Telangana and Maharashtra, women’s seed banks managed by SHGs preserve hundreds of indigenous seed varieties. Women like Shanta Bai from Vidarbha maintain traditional millet seeds that are drought-resistant and climate-resilient. These seed banks help communities survive crop failures and contribute to national food security. 

Global inspiration: Women-led seed preservation models from India have been incorporated into FAO’s biodiversity guidelines. 

 

Local Actions, Global Inspirations: Why Women’s Leadership Matters 

Women’s sustainability leadership works because it is rooted in: 

1. Community-first decision-making 

Women prioritize the well-being of families and villages; their decisions often balance ecological protection with resource needs. 

2. Traditional knowledge + modern innovation 

From herbal pesticides to smartphone weather advisories, women combine ancestral wisdom with digital tools effectively. 

3. Small actions with multiplying effects 

Rainwater harvesting, composting, solar cooking, waste segregation, and kitchen gardens all begin at the household level but inspire larger collective change. 

4. Intergenerational impact 

Women pass sustainable habits to children, shaping future environmental behaviour. 

5. Social cooperation 

Women’s SHGs are natural networks for scaling ideas, mobilizing people, and implementing community programs — something global institutions admire. 

This combination makes women’s local actions a blueprint for global sustainability dialogues. 

 

Women Leading Climate Innovation and Technology 

Contrary to stereotypes, Indian women are also at the forefront of climate technology. 

• Solar Mothers of Rajasthan and Bihar 

In rural Rajasthan, women trained as “Solar Sahelis” install and repair solar lanterns, home lighting systems, and micro-grids. In Bihar, women engineers under the Mukhyamantri Solar Pump Yojana run solar-pump maintenance centres. 

• Women in Waste Management 

In Pune, the SWaCH cooperative led by women waste pickers manages one of India’s most efficient doorstep waste-collection and recycling systems. 

These initiatives show that when women have access to finance, training, and technology, sustainability accelerates. 

 

Building a Fairer, Cleaner, and Smarter Future Through Women’s Leadership 

India's path toward climate adaptation and sustainable development becomes stronger when women are central to the narrative. Their local innovations — whether reviving a pond, saving an endangered bird, or running solar micro-grids — shape national policies and inspire international strategies. They show that sustainability is not only about large-scale infrastructure; it is also about care, collaboration, and everyday commitment. 

By investing in women’s education, leadership, digital access, and financial independence, India can unlock one of the most powerful forces in the climate fight. 

Women are not just beneficiaries of sustainability programs — they are the architects of them. 

References 

1. UN Women (2023). Women and Climate Change: Empowering Women for a Sustainable Future. 

2. FAO (2022). The Role of Women in Agriculture and Biodiversity Preservation. 

3. UNDP India (2021). Case Studies on Kudumbashree and Women-Led Development. 

4. Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India — SHG and NRLM Reports. 

5. Barman, Purnima Devi (2019). Community Conservation Through the Hargila Army. 

6. Agarwal, Bina (2010). Gender and Green Governance. Oxford University Press. 

7. Down to Earth Magazine — Field Reports on Rajasthan Water Collectives and Women Farmers. 

8. National Geographic (2020). Chipko Movement and Its Global Influence. 

Government of Odisha — Coastal Livelihood Missions and Seaweed Projects.