Sunitha Krishnan

Harnessing Pain to Power

A victim of brutal gang rape at only 15, Sunitha Krishnan has transcended from a victim of sexual assault to a strong human rights advocate, helping thousands of victims of sex trafficking and sexual violence – women and children as young as 3 years old – find the courage to carry on with renewed hope and dignity.

An infant born with defects in her legs, Sunitha Krishnan learned at a young age what it meant to be an outsider. Forced to wear corrective casts for much of her childhood, Sunitha knew she was different from the other children in her country, India – describing her childhood self as “physically distant,” yet an ambitious achiever who was extremely passionate about reaching out to those more disadvantaged than her. When her casts were finally removed, she taught herself to dance, and found joy in teaching mentally handicapped children what she loved. In her early teens, she even started a small learning center/school for children in a nearby by slum.

But when she was only 15 years old, Sunitha’s happy life was shaken to the core. She was gang raped by eight men – whose faces she did not know and could not recollect afterwards. “Overnight, my entire world changed,” she recalls.

Sunitha survived the attack, but she quickly realized her struggle had only just begun. Her parents shamed her. Her community shunned her, blaming Sunitha herself and her family for allowing this to happen. Sunitha was being punished for the crime committed against her, and she was utterly alone with no one to turn to.

Her body had been violated by evil men and her reputation disparaged by those around her, but Sunitha did not allow them to diminish her inner strength. Instead, she saw an immense need for change and an opportunity to bring awareness and support to young women who experienced similar trauma.

“I realized I don’t need anybody to stand by me. I’m strong enough for my own self.”

“The world outside likes to see a victim as a victim; they want the victim to be crying, they want the victim to be hiding their face. I am just the opposite,” she explains.

She earned a degree in psychiatric social work and began counseling women in prostitution. She then joined the People’s Movement – an alliance of civil society organizations and individuals in India working toward progressive goals – and was subsequently arrested. She was blamed for her advocacy and spent two months in jail. Upon her release, Sunitha established Prajwala, which began humbly with a mission to rescue and rehabilitate victims of sex trafficking and help them reintegrate into society. Today, it has evolved into one of the world’s largest civil society organizations crusading against sex trafficking and sex crime that has played a key role in rescuing more than 30,100 young girls and women in 12 countries and in protecting 17,000 children from sexual exploitation.

Sunitha’s gang rape – a source of so much trauma – has become one of the biggest sources of motivation in her life. “It made me realize this is how people treat victims of sex crime. You’re treated as a criminal through no fault of yours,” she explains. “And that is when I took a decision in my life: this is the mission that I will undertake. From now, from this moment onward, and every moment of mine, will be dedicated to defeating sex crime and sex trafficking.”

She began working alongside local police and established three separate shelters for the victims they rescued: one emergency shelter, one for adult victims and one for children, sometimes as young as only three years old. While Sunitha is out on the front lines every day working to rescue people from imminent harm, she is equally focused on ensuring that they have the long-term support and resources they need to successfully return to society.

“When I set up Prajwala, I wanted to create a safe community for survivors of sex trafficking. This desire to empower the victim comes from my own understanding of harnessing my pain to power,” she explains. “For every child and for every woman who leaves Prajwala, we want them to leave with a sense of power, dignity and self-identity.”

She spearheaded Swaraksha, the first-ever survivor-led campaign against sex trafficking, which directly reached over 1 million people. She also launched the global #MenAgainstDemand campaign with the slogan “Real Men Don’t Buy Sex,” which has reached 1.8 billion people worldwide. The therapeutic community model she established through safe shelter homes for women and children who have survived sex trafficking is recognized globally as a best-practice approach. These shelters have restored dignity and hope to thousands of survivors, both adults and children.

Thanks to her advocacy work with local governments, Sunitha is able to ensure that the victims have compensation, legal citizenship, housing and jobs as they leave the shelter and return to society. Without these resources, victims of sex crimes and commercial sexual exploitation typically end up back on the streets, severely ill or even dead.

In 2015, Sunitha Krishnan launched the #ShameTheRapist campaign, which led to the Supreme Court of India forming a committee to block rape videos online and prompted the Ministry of Home Affairs to establish the country’s first cyber-crime portal for reporting violent and sexually abusive online content. Her public interest litigation (PIL) against major tech intermediaries—including Facebook, Google, and Yahoo—resulted in India’s first significant regulatory reforms to curb the spread of sexual violence on social media platforms.

Ms. Krishnan’s nearly two-decade-long legal battle in the Supreme Court culminated in a landmark directive calling for comprehensive legislation to combat human trafficking in India. She has played a pivotal role in drafting several victim-centric policies, including the country’s first Anti-Trafficking Policy, the Policy on Minimum Standards of Care, the Sex Offenders Registry, and the introduction of video conferencing to record the testimony of trafficked victims. Additionally, she has led the development of comprehensive training manuals and handbooks for judicial officers, prosecutors, law enforcement personnel, and other key stakeholders involved in anti-trafficking efforts.

Recipient of the fourth-highest Indian civilian honor, the Padma Shri, and recognized by Newsweek as one of the “150 Fearless Women in the World,” Sunitha sees her work as a truly global effort – spanning beyond India’s borders and representing a fight against sex trafficking around the world. “I’m not here to run a small organization. I’m here to transform the world by showing demonstrated possibilities in India – and make the world understand that any form of sex crime against women and children is deplorable and not to be tolerated.”