Sunitha is a gender, climate justice and community participatory consultant. She believes in the potential of individuals and communities to build a humane and environmentally sustainable existence. Since her teens, she observed and learned from her father, the late Mr. Bisan Singh and mentor, Prof. Dato’ Dr Anwar Fazal. Both exposed her to community power in environmental and sustainability governance. These included exposure to various levels of inter-governmental meetings, NGO-government negotiations and debates within the Asia Pacific region and the United Nations framework. Her years of experience only strengthens her conviction on the importance of gender perspectives, feminist views and mainstreaming for ecology is important for a peaceful human civilization.
Sunitha holds a Masters in Gender in Development from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand and a Masters in Law specializing in Global Sustainability and Environmental Law from the University of Ottawa, Canada.
She has served in various positions within NGOs, the UN and government including as a Malaysian government delegate for gender in the COP21 Paris Agreement negotiations. Her scope of work includes gender research and analysis, designing gender mainstreaming implementation at government departments/NGOs/Community and program/project assessments through gender and sustainability lens. She has participated in the drafting of legislation for advancing gender issues e.g. gender equality bill, sexual harassment and family laws. She has supported the drafting of government circulars on gender budgeting. Her research on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and climate justice in Sarawak was recognized by UNFCCC in 2019 in their press statement on violence against women.