Braving The Storm To Fight For Change

“A woman is like a tea bag: you cannot tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.”

- Nancy Reagan

Most of the victims of gang rape don’t survive, those few who do lead a life of contempt, which makes them die daily.

The social stigma attached to a rape victim makes her an outcast and is looked down upon by everybody. Half the population will not even accept a rape victim as a domestic help! Under such dreaded circumstances, here is a girl who not only survived the agony of gang rape but also empowered herself to save and rehabilitate victims of sex trafficking. Meet Dr Sunitha Krishnan who belongs to a rare breed of individuals who have committed their lives for the cause.

At the tender age of 15, she was gang-raped by eight men, beating her so badly that she is partially deaf in one ear. She is four-and-a-half feet tall, but don’t let her height fool you; she is a world changer. Today, Sunitha is a leading advocate for the fight against Sex Trafficking.

Sunitha decided when she was young that she wanted to help the poor children of her village. So she went to college to become a social worker. One day as she was organising the village so that she could teach them, a gang of eight men did not like that a woman was interfering with what they claimed as ‘man’s society.’ Sunitha then explains that the rape did not cause her to become a victim but rather it released this anger. Not just any anger but pure fury. She dedicated her life after that to being an activist to fight against the same thing that happened to her. 'In Half the Sky' (a book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning husband-and-wife journalists Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl Wu- Dunnshe), she says, “What affected me more was the way society treated me, the way people looked at me. Nobody questioned why those guys did it. They questioned why I went there, why my parents gave me freedom. I realised that what happened to me was a one-time thing. But for many people, it was a daily affair. Later, she did her B.Sc. (Environmental Science), M.S.W. (Psychiatric Social Work) and Ph.D (Social Work). She is married to Mr Rajesh Touchriver, an Indian filmmaker, art director and scriptwriter.

Sunitha Krishnan, born in Bengaluru in 1972, is an Indian social activist and chief functionary and co-founder of “Prajwala”, or ‘an eternal flame’, an institution that assists trafficked women and girls in finding shelter. The organisation also helps pay for the education of five thousand children infected with HIV/AIDS in Hyderabad. “Prajwala’s ‘second-generation’ prevention programme operates in 17 transition centres and has served thousands of children of prostituted mothers. The NGO’s strategy is to remove women from brothels by giving their children education and career opportunities. Krishnan and her staff train survivors in carpentry, welding, printing, masonry and housekeeping. She works in the areas of anti-human trafficking, psychiatric rehabilitation and social policy. She was invited to speak at TED India 2009 at Infosys Campus, Mysore.

“She broke hearts and moved people to action. The audience listened painfully to some of the stories of the more than 3,200 girls she has rescued, girls who had endured unimaginable torture and yet, somehow, nevertheless found the will to heal and thrive. She spoke of the need for everyone to overcome silence about the phenomenon of human trafficking, the modern form of slavery, and for us not only to offer our love and compassion to its victims but also to be willing to accept them in our communities. She admitted that rescuing girls is never a very safe business, sharing that she can no longer hear out of her right ear, and that she has been beaten up during interventions more than a dozen times. Her strong voice and powerful body language ensured that no one could claim to have misunderstood her points.”

She was also invited to the famous TV show Satyamev Jayate, hosted by Aamir Khan. Dr Sunitha Krishnan is a rare breed of individual who has committed her life as a fulltime volunteer in “Prajwala”. A mental health professional, she has done extensive research and is essentially a field practitioner. She has been instrumental in rescuing hundreds of children from severely abusive conditions and restoring childhood to them. Dr Sunitha Krishnan is making it possible for India’s government and citizen’s organisations to manage jointly a range of protective and rehabilitative services for children who have been trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation. For her efforts in the anti-trafficking, she has been awarded Stree Shakthi Puraskar (national award), Perdita Huston Human Rights Award and the World of Children Award.

"In this patriarchal society, women are stereotyped. We are used as objects to satisfy men. There has been a need for one class (men) to be more powerful over women"

How does one can answer such questions when, in 2011, only 17 per cent of the reported rape incidents could be proven with a conviction rate of roughly about 25 per cent. According to the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB), India, 2,44,270 crimes against women were reported to the police last year compared with 2,28,650 in 2011. According to Sunitha, “Forced prostitution, sex slavery, marital rapes and sexual abuse have always been a part of the society, only the visibility has increased.”

“In this patriarchal society, women are stereotyped. We are used as objects to satisfy men. There has been a need for one class (men) to be more powerful over women. This is where the problem begins, stigmatise rapists and their families,” Krishnan says.

“Let us write about men who commit such heinous crimes. Let us be curious to know who the rapist is and what his background is, instead (of finding out about the victim),” emphasises Krishnan. “My time is primarily for those who need my help,” she adds. Everything else is as much an intervention and botheration for her as much as she is to those patronising sexual crimes against women.

Krishnan has had the courage to not only fight for her rights but also force the society to accept her. In the process, she probably comes across as a stubborn and a ‘not-an-easy- to-please,’ personality to many. At various forums, Krishnan has not only identified rape survivors and HIV-positive patients but also revealed their current profession. Questions have been raised over her methods, which many say subject to the survivors to further social stigma. But Krishnan is not too bothered about the criticism. “I am not here to please everyone,” she insists, firmly focused on her mission to save trafficked women.

Her organisation worked to table and has got the civic compensation legislation for trafficked children passed through Andhra Pradesh State Assembly, to enable their civic rehabilitation. This, she described, was crucial to having the children recognise themselves as victims rather than perpetrators, and crucially, have that same mind shift occur in the communities they were re-entering.

"At various forums, Krishnan has not only identified rape survivors and HIV-positive patients but also revealed their current profession"

In addition, “Prajwala” runs 17 schools throughout Andhra Pradesh, India, for 6,000 children and has rescued more than 4,200 women from prostitution, 2,100 of whom Sunitha personally liberated. Sunitha has sparked India’s anti-trafficking movement by coordinating government, corporations and NGOs. She forged NGO-corporate partnerships with various companies to find jobs for rehabilitated women. Sunitha works closely with the Indian Government to define anti- trafficking policy, and her recommendations for rehabilitating sex victims have been passed into state legislation.

For any long-term systemic change to happen, policy framework and policy input are necessary, otherwise civil society interventions largely end up as a reactionary process without long-term impact. It is with this objective in mind “Prajwala” got into advocacy work lobbying for policy changes at the state, national and international levels.

Both policy and legal lobbying are done to bring systemic changes. She co-produced a film along with her husband Rajesh, based on sex slavery. According to various estimates, India has about three million sex workers, most of whom are children.

The film was a commercial flop. “But it earned critical acclaim. Why do we have to watch and write reviews of movies that show women in a bad light? Why do we create heroes out of men who stalk women on screen?” she told Al Jazeera.

Her critics maintain that while she is doing a great service, she leaves no opportunity to earn the extra mileage. There is a 13-minute video of Sunitha Krishnan on TED https:// www.youtube. com/watch?v=UHn5vaUlfIA. It is dynamic and passionate. I encourage you to watch it; you will understand why this woman is one of my heroes.