India and Sustainable Development – Mission LiFE
Dr. Rajarshi Mitra
Associate Professor and Head
Department of Environmental Science, Vivekananda College, Kolkata - 700063
In spite, of being the most populous country of the World, India has successfully maintained a
moderate environmental health. Broadly, the lifestyle of the people of India has contributed a
lot in achieving the environmental goals at the national level. If you look into the traditional
Indian lifestyle, you may find that the major portion of the population still doesn’t have any
means of large heating or cooling devices, motor vehicle and even enough electricity supply in
their houses. Additionally, due to religious and cultural reasons quite a large population of the
country is vegetarian and depend on less water and energy consuming natural resources in their
everyday life. On the contrary, the lower affordability also leads to public health concerns. But,
in overall context, the Indian lifestyle is traditionally sustainable. In fact, the national carbon
footprint – a measure of environmental stress, is 60% lower than the global average.
In the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP 26) in 2021 at Glasgow, the Prime
Minister of India, Hon’ble Narendra Modi showcased the positive ways of Indian lifestyle and
introduced a Nation wide drive as Mission LiFE to comply with the scopes of sustainable
development.
The Lifestyle For Environment (LiFE) is expected to become an environmentally conscious
lifestyle that will lead to a mindful deliberate utilisation of natural resources instead of a
mindless destructive consumption. However, Mission LiFE is designed with 7 specific goals.
1. Save Energy: to reduce the consumption and wastage of energy by adopting renewable
energy sources like solar power, wind power etc. along with changes in consumption
patterns by use of LEDs for lighting, public transport to reduce fuel consumption,
electric vehicles etc.
2. Save water: to reduce consumption and wastage of water, by practicing water recycling
at domestic and community levels, use of less water intensive cropping, rainwater
harvesting and most importantly proper monitoring on water wastages.
3. Say NO to single use plastics: to reduce the plastic disposal problems, those frequently
lead to vivid trouble of flooding, landslide, biodiversity loss, productivity loss etc. in
stead of single use plastics, the reuse and recycling of the plastic materials to be
promoted. Also. Alternatives of the plastics are to be identified and bring into
commercial space.
4. Adopt sustainable food systems: wise use of land for food production, like promotion
of kitchen gardens, rooftop gardens for vegetable production, use of organic fertilizers,
inclusion of millets, fibre rich diet and judicious use of food materials are to be
encouraged.
Page 1 of 2
5. Reduce Waste: reduction of waste may be achieved by improvement in resource use
efficiency, reuse and recycling of waste materials. Different scheme of wealth from the
waste are to be promoted.
6. Adopt Healthy Lifestyle: promotes use of less energy and resource intensive goods,
reuse and recycling practices, biodiversity conservation, focus on organic farming,
consumption of less water intensive highly nutritious crops like millets and encouraging
traditional lifestyles.
7. E-waste reuse: promotes reuse of electronic waste, which is an important area of
making transforming waste to wealth. E-waste reuse or recycling is the best example
of making a waste, the raw material for the next cycle of production.
There are three phases of Mission LiFE as, Change in demand (Phase I), Change in supply
(Phase II) and Change in Policy (Phase III). This is a step by step approach, where the
movement starts from the change in attitude of individuals to adopt environment friendly
lifestyle, followed by the changes in material production and service to be performed by the
technocrats and industries. At the final phase the LiFE mission targets to achieve changes in
global policy decision for adoption of inclusive sustainable lifestyle.
Page 2 of 2
