Sunitha Krishnan Biography 
Sunitha Krishnan is a social activist from Bangalore, Karnataka. She is the co-founder of Prajwala, a non-governmental organization, which rescues and rehabilitates sex-trafficked victims, and also tries to reintegrate them to the society. This rehabilitation organization has rescued and rehabilitated many women and children. In fact her personal experiences as a child during her teens prompted her to dedicate her life towards the welfare of victims of sex abuses and trafficking. She was only 15 when she was gang raped by 8 men. She was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2016, for her fight against sex slavery and her efforts for noble causes.
Sunitha Krishnan was born in 1972 in Bangalore, Karnataka. She was born to Palakkad Malayali parents, Raju Krishnan and Nalini Krishnan. Her father worked with the Department of Survey, which helped her to travel across the country. Right from childhood she was interested in social work, and had a helping mentality. At the age of 8, she started teaching dance to mentally challenged children. When she reached 12, she ran schools in slums for underprivileged children.
At the age of 15 she worked on a neo-literacy campaign for the Dalit community, and on that occasion an incident changed her life forever. She was gang raped by eight men, who didn’t like her interference with what they claimed as “man’s society.” They beat her so hard that she became partially deaf after that incident. Instead of breaking down her will power, this incident served as the catalyst for what she does today. She continued with her social work, and most of her works were concentrated on rescuing and rehabilitating sex-trafficked victims.
In 1996 she got arrested for her protests against the staging of the Miss World competition in Bangalore, her hometown. In 1996 when hundreds of sex workers were evacuated from a red street of Bangalore, she started Prajwala which provided them shelter and new hopes to start a new life. Till now, Prajwala has rescued, rehabilitated, or served over 12,000 survivors of sex trafficking, and is the largest anti-trafficking shelter in the world.
Her organization also prevents second-generation prostitution by rescuing women from brothels and educating their children. Prajwala runs about 17 schools throughout Hyderabad for 5,000 children and has rescued more than 2,500 women from prostitution. She personally rescued more than 1500 women. Malayalam movie, Thira was partially inspired from her work.
Published: November 18, 2018
Updated: November 18, 2018
