2026 年 35 巻 4 号 p. 4_39-49
Environmental education in India has evolved from nature awareness initiatives to a broader socio-ecological framework encompassing climate change, sustainable lifestyles, and responsible citizenship. National policy instruments such as the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, National Curriculum Frameworks, and flagship sustainability missions provide a strong normative foundation for mainstreaming environmental learning across formal and informal education systems. However, despite this progressive policy architecture, access to meaningful and empowering environmental education remains uneven, particularly for marginalised youth including Scheduled Tribes, forest-dependent communities, urban-poor and migrant populations, girls and women, learners with disabilities, and out-of-school adolescents.
This commentary examines inclusive and equitable environmental education in India through a climate justice lens, with specific focus on Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), a Government of India initiative aimed at promoting mass behavioural change towards sustainability. Drawing on policy analysis, environmental justice frameworks, and education-for-sustainable-development literature, the paper argues that environmental education must move beyond uniform, knowledge-centric approaches towards context-sensitive, action-oriented, and rights-based pedagogies.
The analysis identifies key structural barriers to inclusive environmental education, including cultural and linguistic exclusion, resource and infrastructure deficits, pedagogical rigidity, digital divides, gender norms, inadequate teacher preparedness, and persistent social stigma. While Mission LiFE offers a scalable public pedagogical platform through community action, youth mobilisation, and programme convergence, its inclusive potential remains under-realised due to digital dependency, standardised messaging, and limited equity-focused monitoring.
To address these challenges, the paper proposes an inclusive Mission LiFE framework emphasising localisation, gender-responsive leadership, disability inclusion, digital equity, community-based experiential learning, green skills and livelihood integration, and participatory governance. It also highlights critical research gaps related to marginalised youth outcomes, indigenous pedagogies, gendered dimensions of sustainability, disability-inclusive education, and livelihood-linked environmental learning.
The paper concludes that environmental education in India is fundamentally a climate justice imperative. Embedding inclusion structurally within Mission LiFE can transform environmental education into a democratic and empowering pathway, ensuring that marginalised youth are recognised as knowledge-holders and co-leaders in India’s sustainability transition.
