Sunitha Krishnan (born 1972) is an Indian social activist and the co-founder of Prajwala, a Hyderabad-based organisation that rescues, shelters and rehabilitates women and children who have been trafficked for sex. Since 1996 Prajwala has helped many thousands of survivors and has become one of the largest anti-trafficking organisations in the world. Krishnan, herself a survivor of sexual violence, has been attacked many times for her work. She received the Padma Shri in 2016.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Sunitha Krishnan |
| Born | 1972, Bangalore (now Bengaluru), India |
| Occupation | Social activist |
| Organisation | Prajwala (co-founded 1996) |
| Education | St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore; Roshni Nilaya, Mangalore (M.S.W.) |
| Spouse | Rajesh Touchriver (filmmaker) |
| Honour | Padma Shri (2016) |
| Known for | Fighting sex trafficking |
Early Life
Krishnan was born in Bangalore to Malayali parents; her father worked for the Survey of India, and the family moved often. She was drawn to social work as a child: at eight she was teaching dance to children with disabilities, and at twelve she ran classes for children in slums. When she was 15, while working on a literacy campaign in a village, she was raped by a group of eight men. She has said the experience, and the way she was blamed and isolated afterwards, gave her the anger that drives her work. She went on to study environmental science in Bangalore and took a master’s degree in social work in Mangalore.
Prajwala
Krishnan moved to Hyderabad in the 1990s. In 1996 the city’s Mehboob ki Mehndi red-light area was cleared, leaving hundreds of women homeless. With Brother Jose Vetticatil, a Catholic missionary, she started a school in an emptied brothel for the children of women in prostitution, so that they would not follow their mothers into the trade. This was the beginning of Prajwala, which means “eternal flame”.
Prajwala works in five areas: prevention, rescue, rehabilitation, reintegration and advocacy. It joins the police on raids, runs one of the largest shelters in the world for trafficking survivors, and trains them in trades such as welding, carpentry, printing and housekeeping so they can earn a living. Many of the girls it rescues are children, and a large share are HIV-positive.
Krishnan has helped draft government policies on trafficking in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and has petitioned the Supreme Court on the issue. In 2015 she launched the “Shame the Rapist” campaign after receiving videos of sexual assaults that were being circulated online, which led the Supreme Court to order action against such videos. She has been physically attacked many times and lost part of the hearing in one ear in an assault.
Personal Life
Krishnan is married to the filmmaker Rajesh Touchriver, with whom she has made films on trafficking, including Naa Bangaaru Talli (2013), which won National Film Awards. She published her memoir, I Am What I Am, in 2024.
Awards and Honours
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Sunitha Krishnan born?
Sunitha Krishnan was born in 1972, Bangalore (now Bengaluru), India.
What is Sunitha Krishnan known for?
Known for: Fighting sex trafficking.
Featured image: Sunitha Krishnan speaks at an event in Kollam, Kerala, August 2025. Photo by Fotokannan, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
