Sudha is a senior development practitioner and policy advocate with over 35 years of experience in rights-based community development, gender justice, food and nutrition security, climate resilience, social and solidarity economy, and peacebuilding. Her work foregrounds the interface between grassroots realities, legal frameworks, and governance systems, with a focus on advancing the recognition of marginalized communities as rights-holders.

At the Centre for Child and the Law (CCL), National Law School of India University, she contributes to resource development, field-based assessments, participatory documentation, and multi-stakeholder capacity-building initiatives, in collaboration with government departments and civil society organisations. Her expertise includes programme design, community-led research, participatory evaluations, and multilingual knowledge translation (Kannada–English).

Nationally, she has been closely engaged with the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, particularly in strengthening community awareness, grievance redressal, and accountability mechanisms.

Internationally, Sudha has participated in UN and global policy dialogues on rights, ethics, sustainability, food sovereignty, social and solidarity economy, and women’s leadership. She represented Rencontres du Mont-Blanc (RMB) – International Forum of Social Economy Leaders at the UN-convened Intergovernmental Consultation on the Zero Draft of the UNCSD (Rio+20) Outcome Document at UN Headquarters, New York (2012), and at the Rio+20 Earth Summit, Brazil, where she presented on Social Economy: Providing New Social Choices. She also represented the International Alliance for Responsible and Sustainable Societies at Rio+20, speaking on the need for a Charter of Responsibilities for sustainable peace and development. Her international engagements include platforms such as COP15 and the World Social Forum.

Her writings have appeared in FOGGS, KATOIKOS, UNAE, and other national and international publications. She is the recipient of the MAJA KOENE International Peace Award (2025), recognising her sustained contributions to nonviolent social transformation and rights-based peacebuilding.

Selected Recent Publications

• “The Weaponization of Food: Violating Human Rights and Children’s Rights Impeding the Search for Peace in Conflict Situations” FOGGS Publications, September 2024
• “Gaza: Starving the Innocent, Starving the Conscience of Humanity” KATOIKOS.WORLD, 21 May 2025
• “Judgment Day in Gaza: For Whom, for What and How?” FOGGS Publications, 14 June 2025
• “War Is Not Tit for Tat: A Cry for Humanity” KATOIKOS.WORLD, 8 May 2025
• “Breaking Barriers, Building Futures: Life Skills Education as a Pathway to Democratic Leadership for Rural Adolescent Girls in India” Presented at Democracy Talk (The Democrat Project & EUCEN), 23 April 2025
• “Biomimicry and Regenerative Sustainability: Insights from Indian Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Hindu Pluralistic Ecologies”
• Biomimesis: Transdisciplinarity in Harmony with Nature, UNAE (Ecuador), April 2025