Exposing the darker side

Sunitha Krishnan, a social activist shared her views on ‘Human Trafficking’, in the afternoon session at HLF day-3. She was co-founder of Prajwala, a Non-Profit Organisation, which rescues sex workers.

“Human Trafficking is one of the biggest crimes in the world. It has placed third in the position of major crimes in the world. Human beings are sold for various purposes of exploitation. The youngest baby, who was rescued from the trafficker was just one-day-old,” she informed.

Sunitha stated that according to statistics, there are 18 million slaves in India in which most of them are victims of human trafficking.

“In my life, the youngest child I have rescued was only three years old. Interestingly, in some rescue operations in the victims of prostitution did not want to get rescued because they were addicted to it,” Sunitha said.

Sharing about incidents that happened in her life, Sunitha said “I was gang raped when I was at 15. After that incident, my life has been changed completely.

Many people deserted me and my parents faced humiliation at that time. I came quickly out of that incident and I always choose to be a survivor. When I was in jail for some protest over a period of 30 days no one visited me,” she rued.

About her organisation ‘Prajwala’, she said, “I started Prajwala to create a place for people who were completely rejected by society. It rescues, rehabilitates and reintegrates sex-trafficked victims into society.

It has begun to rescue little children who were in prostitution and later it turned for adults also. We have 21 learning centers across the country and more than 8,000 people were saved by our organisation. We have three special shelters to stop the human trafficking like Emergency, Children and Adults.”

Sunitha said that after many years of struggle they are getting support from the legislation. “Many people talk about implementation of legal prostitution but I don’t believe in it.

Implementing legal prostitution is like submitting our bodies to the brothel houses. A woman’s safety always depends on men’s attitude. I will fight till my last breath to abolish the human trafficking,” she concluded.