Activist Sunitha Krishnan, known for her role in drafting Kerala’s Nirbhaya policy, was in the state last week for Cocon-2025. She also interacted with students of UC College, Aluva. A rape survivor herself, Sunitha shared with TOI how she transformed personal trauma into a mission — rescuing and rehabilitating survivors of sexual abuse through her NGO, Prajwala

How do you look at Nirbhaya policy’s implementation and rehabilitation? How is it done in Prajwala, the institution you run in Hyderabad?

Rehabilitation is a major part of this process. The previous government had sought our help in drafting the policy and our expertise in rehabilitation and reintegration into society. At Prajwala, we are actively training them in professions that require a workforce. Women are trained as masons, electricians, mechanics and given vocational skills. It has built their confidence and they become a force wherever they go. Many have married and settled down in life. It is their decision whether to tell their families or not because society remains as it is… A team of these women went to Alappuzha after the floods in 2018 to help reconstruct homes.

Are sexual crimes in Kerala different from other states?

Literacy does make a difference. But in each state, problems vary though the crime and its impact on survivors don’t change. In many cases in Kerala, the survivors have an emotional deficit and this leads to abuse, often within the family. There is also an aspirational vulnerabilityattraction or infatuation becomes a trigger. The support system in India is weak; it is the same in Kerala. For example, Nirbhaya homes are mostly for children, not women.

Your book -‘I am what I am’, recently translated into Malayalam, shows how you turned adversity into an opportunity that led to the rescue of 28,900 persons and prevented 18,000 children from entering the sex trade? Was it easy to take on the bigwigs?

I have had close calls and even ended up seeing eye to eye with some VVIPs during rescues. But just as they have the power to put us in jail, there are many within the system who are upright and have learnt to seek help accordingly. It is not easy to run an NGO, especially against sexual crimes.

What led you to activism?

I was born with a disability in my leg and underwent corrective surgery within the first 10 days of my birth. For the next two years, my leg was plastered. One of my earliest memories of my parents is them saying I could tolerate pain. There was a lot of pain during therapy and healing. The nurses used to cringe but I never cried. They say I would be the protector of all children I knew. They used to call me granny as I would object when adults resorted to verbal abuses in conversation. By eight, I was a regular volunteer at a mentally-challenged home. I was known for being helpful as a child. Anybody would feel comfortable to leave their children with me. By early teens, I was the achiever and every parent wanted their kid to emulate me.

The gang rape that triggered activism against sex crimes.

I was gang-raped when I was 15. Those days I was doing voluntary work teaching kids and was part of a neo-literacy campaign, trying to motivate them to go to school. We had a conversation about periods and menstruation. But somewhere it didn’t sit well with villagers and it triggered negatively. They thought that I should be taught a lesson. I don’t want to dwell upon the rape… but it turned my life around. From being a girl who was an achiever and on top of the world, I sank to hell. Suddenly I became an outcast and parents told their kids to keep away from me. I saw how the world excludes a sexual abuse survivor. People tried to pin the blame on me saying my parents gave me too much freedom and ‘why did she go out at night with boys.’

How does society treat a survivor?

We have some expectations… you are supposed to feel shy and ashamed, hide your face and express trauma. I did not do so. My parents went silent. I thought they were upset and it took me a long time to understand that they never asked questions and were supportive. When I went to the panchayat, I refused to be treated as a morally-degraded person. Those eight guys who did this to me should be ashamed. I was labelled arrogant and those with some sympathy (then) felt I deserved what happened. This led me to activism.

Walk us through your first rescue when you were just 17 years old. How important was the support of various individuals?

I rescued a child with mental illness who was raped at Majestic in Bengaluru. Marks on her body indicated she was sexually exploited. There was no examination in those days. I remember going to those places, trying to understand who the people were and how trafficking works? In one instance, I talked to a woman in that area who was chewing paan and talking with excitement; she spat the whole thing on me.

One day a woman came running to me and said that she wanted to take me somewhere. They took me to a lodge where a young girl of 12-13 sat in a corner with a woman who I understood was the brothel keeper. She told me you always keep coming here to help people; so help her. I asked them all to leave the room. Since I had interacted with such kids before, I could communicate with her. One can understand how little a traumatized girl may be able to share.

What happened afterwards?

When I told these women that she is from this area and this was probably what happened, their response shocked me. We have to take her back, they said. I couldn’t understand how these women who were in the prostitution business, were ready to send this girl back home. It became a mission, but I had no clue how to get her back to her village. I got a jeep from a priest and six of these prostitutes came with me to ensure that she got home safely.

Did you learn anything about the child?

We realized that she was an orphan, her family abandoned her to usurp property. A pimp picked her up and sold her to a brothel. When questions about where the girl was found were raised, these women told stories of how I stayed in a big house and they were domestic workers in the area and the girl had been staying with me. These women understood how difficult it would be to integrate her into society and played their role accordingly.

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