About Producer

Sunitha Krishnan

Sunitha Krishnan

PRODUCER

Sunitha Krishnan is an activist, author, and film producer. She founded Prajwala — Asia’s largest institution combating sex trafficking and sex crimes. Since its inception in 1996 in Hyderabad, Sunitha has assisted in the rescue of more than 32,200 young girls and women across 12 countries from sex slavery and has prevented 18,000 children from being inducted into prostitution.

She spearheaded the first-ever survivor-led campaign, Swaraksha, against sex trafficking, which directly reached over 1 million people. She also launched the #MenAgainstDemand campaign with the slogan, “Real Men Don’t Buy Sex,” which has reached 1.8 billion people worldwide. The therapeutic community and safe shelter homes established by Ms. Krishnan for sex-trafficked women and children are considered a best-practice model globally and have ensured dignity in the lives of thousands of survivors of sex trafficking, both adults and children.

In 2015, Sunitha launched the #ShameTheRapist campaign, which resulted in the Supreme Court of India forming a committee to block rape videos online and the Ministry of Home Affairs setting up the first-ever cybercrime portal to report violent and sexually abusive online content. The PIL against Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and other intermediaries brought about the first major regulatory reform in India to curb the proliferation of sexual violence on social media. Ms. Krishnan’s relentless fight in the Supreme Court for nearly two decades resulted in a path-breaking direction to introduce comprehensive legislation to combat human trafficking in India.

Sunitha has played an instrumental role in drafting several victim-centric policies for various states, including India’s first-ever Anti-Trafficking Policy, policies for Minimum Standards of Care, the Sex Offenders Registry, and the introduction of video conferencing to record the evidence of trafficked victims. She is also responsible for developing comprehensive training manuals and handbooks for judicial officers, prosecuting officers, law enforcers, and other duty bearers on human trafficking.

Sunitha Krishnan’s memoir, I Am What I Am, released a year ago, is now being translated into multiple Indian languages and is regarded as one of the most compelling memoirs by an activist. She is also the producer of the multiple award-winning feature films Naa Bangaaru Talli, on sex trafficking, and Dahini: The Witch, on witch-hunting.