Sunita Viswanath will be honored as climate Champion of Change

The White House has chosen Indian-American Sunita Viswanath among 12 faith leaders who will be honoured as "Champion of Change" on July 20 for their continuous efforts towards climate change.

Viswanath, who has worked in women's and human rights organisations for almost three decades, "is being honoured for her work to encourage Hindus in protecting environment and communities from the effects of climate change," the White House said in a statement.

Viswanath is co-founder and active board member of the 14-year old women's human rights organisation Women for Afghan Women (WAW).

"Sunita is also co-founder and board member of Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, living and building a Hinduism that prioritises social justice, and upholding the Hindu principles of ekatva (oneness), ahimsa (non-violence) and sadhana (faith in action)."

Born in Chennai, Viswanath is known as a fierce leader whose passion for women's rights and faith-based activism has made her a beacon of hope for the people of New York City.

A central component of Sadhana is Project Prithvi, which is an environmental initiative.

As part of Project Prithvi, Sadhana is involved with cleaning up a beach in Jamaica Bay, Queens which is a place of worship for Hindus.

Sadhana has officially adopted this beach, conducts regular clean-ups, and also does outreach through Hindu temples to advocate that Hindus worship in environmentally conscious ways, said the interfaithcenter.org.

Viswanath was a 2011 recipient of the "Feminist Majority Foundation's Global Women's Rights Award" for her work with WAW.

She lives in Brooklyn in New York with her husband Stephan Shaw and their three sons -- Gautama, Akash and Satya.

White House will honor 12 faith leaders including Sunita Viswanath, co-founder and board member of Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus based in New York as climate Champions of Change.

On Monday, July 20th, the White House will recognize them for their efforts in protecting environment and communities from the effects of climate change. These Champions have demonstrated clear leadership across the United States and around the world through their grassroots efforts to green their communities and educate others on the moral and social justice implications of climate change, the White House release said.

The program will feature remarks by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy and Senior Advisor to the President Brian Deese.

The Champions of Change program was created as an opportunity for the White House to feature individuals doing extraordinary things to empower and inspire members of their communities. 

Sunita Viswanath has worked in women's and human rights organizations for almost three decades. She is co-founder and active board member of the 15-year-old front-line women’s human rights organization, Women for Afghan Women.  Sunita is also co-founder of Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, living and building a Hinduism that prioritizes social justice, and upholding the Hindu principles of ekatva (oneness), ahimsa (non-violence) and sadhana (faith in action). Sunita is being honored for her work with Sadhana to encourage Hindus to live out these principles by taking care of the environment.

She is instrumental in cleaning the beaches in Jamaica Bay where the Caribbean Hindus worship and put offerings like flowers, saris, diyas, murtis, bamboo and other things.

Offering flowers and other things to ocean or rivers is part of Hindu worship from time immemorial. It also creates an environmental problem when the offerings are returned to the beach by the high tides.

Sadhana which was started in 2011 has come out to clean up the beaches especially in Jamaica Bay.

“Currently, we are working on a project to clean up specific beaches in Jamaica Bay where Hindus worship, leaving mountains of the most gorgeous litter one ever saw. We have been aware for some time about efforts in the local Indo-Caribbean Hindu community to address the growing problem of litter left behind when Hindus worship at the local beaches,” Sunita said earlier.

The New York Times had written a long article a few years ago and Sunita was thinking of the problem for quite some time. Many rituals in this community require making an offering to the water, and Indo-Caribbean Hindus don’t feel that their worship is complete without the offering being made, yet Hindus consider rivers and oceans sacred. Sadhana has been working with religious and community leaders to make explicit this contradiction, and encourage a behavioral change.

Members of Sadhana took up the issue and Project Prithvi was born. It organized several clean ups, which collected glittering things as well as trash. Murtis and other valuable things were collected separately.

About 20 volunteers from Sadhana participate in the clean up. They collect only materials which were part of Hindu worship.

In addition to the clean up, the pandits and activists visit temples and speak about the need for environmental protection. They educate people that many of the current materials thrown in to the sea are not bio degradable and they are an environmental hazard. Two Indo-Caribbean priests in the group, Pandit Arjunen Armogan of Adi Shakti Maha Kali Mandir, Queens and Pandit Umesh Sharma of Shri Vishnu Mandir in Bronx

advocate that worshippers not put non-biodegradable offerings into the oceans and rivers, but instead take them home with them after symbolic offering.

Pandit Umesh Sharma takes all the bamboo sticks from the devotees in his temple and burns them in a holy bonfire. This holy ash from this bonfire is offered to devotees to apply on their foreheads in the temple. Pandit Arjunen collects the fabrics and saris from devotees' pujas, washes them and send to poor communities in Guyana and India.

Sadhana says the following as its commitment, ‘We will bring priests into this effort so that they can encourage greener rituals and raise awareness of the problem. We hope that priests will help us make the point that since our Hindu texts describe the earth and the water as Goddesses, it does not honor them to pollute and destroy them.’

“It is amazing to see people throwing whole saris in the ocean,” Viswanath said.

Things collected in the clean ups was shown in an exhibition at Queens Museum of Art.

Sadhana is an all-volunteer group of New York-based Hindus to bring a progressive Hindu voice into the public discourse, and to live out the social justice principles at the heart of Hinduism. Through this grassroots green project, Sadhana mobilizes Hindus, especially youth, to live out the principle of ahimsa (non-violence) by serving as stewards for the environment.

www.sadhana.org

Sunita and tean cleaning the Jamaica Bay