Lasting Rose

"Victims of sexual violence anywhere, in any part of the world require our compassion, care and a space for healing My fear is whether all this outrage will pass of…not just for the media but for all us when the next story comes in... I am suitably amused by the number of comments on the facebook, tweets etc on how everybody is feeling guilty and ashamed. The time is not for guilt and shame…the time is for action. Can we all join hands to form the largest movement of real men that will engage with men to sensitize…transform…reform…treat…so that they do not turn as perpetrators of crime. It could be as an eve teaser…molester…abuser…rapist. Can we engage with men so that do not become ‘buyers of sex’…because as buyers they rape… for the girl who is being bought for sex has absolutely no bargaining power on the needs of the man who is buying her. Is this such a tough proposition… we do not need to go searching for men…they are all around us…our fathers, brothers, boyfriends, husbands, uncles…We can start now within our own families" These are the words of Dr.Suntha Krisahnan, a living legend according to a Washington Daily, a brave girl who was gang raped and discarded.

Sunitha was brutally gang raped when she was 15 by 8 men. " I dont remember the rape part of it so much as much as the anger part of it. " This gang rape had stigmatized her for several years and had let her become isolated. She says in her speech sighting the plight of the victims "In [India] and across the globe, hundreds and thousands of children, as young as three, four, are sold into sexual slavery. But that’s not the only purpose that human beings are sold for. They are sold in the name of adoption. They are sold in the name of organ trade. They are sold in the name of forced labor, camel jockeying, anything, everything." And when they are resucued they are considered as victims and isolated from the society. “My biggest challenge is society. It’s you and me. My biggest challenge is your blocks to accept these victims as our own. It’s very fashionable to talk about human trafficking in this fantastic AC hall. It’s very nice for discussion, discourse, making films and everything. But it is not nice to bring them to our homes. It’s not nice to give them employment in our factories, our companies. It’s not nice for our children to study with their children. … That’s my biggest challenge.”

Sunitha was inspirational because even though she was a victim she did not let it get the best of her life and ruin everything that she has dreamed of. Today Sunitha talks to people about sex slavery and helps them build confidence for a better future and to take away the power of the pain that they are faced with. Sunitha Krishnan has recused over 3, 200 girls, as young as 3 years of age to 40 years of age. Many minors who were rescued after gang rape succumbed to death because of brutal sexual abuse. It is people like Sunitha that have a big heart to take a stand and help project others from what she has been through and to help build confidence to the ones who have been through it.

Dr. Suntha Krisahnan is the co-founder of ‘Prajwala’, an organization which rescues and provides shelter for sexually abused and trafficked women and children. Most of the rescued victims were forced into prostitution by their own relatives and hence go through sex slavery and are faced with the life time disease of either HIV, AIDS, gonorrhea, or other sorts of disease.

I was raped, but it didn't end my life,
 I'm a phoenix. listen to her speach:


To all the citizen of the world who are reading this, this is not a piece of wonderful literature, this is not a note to create social media attention, but this is a hand-out to all those who believe they can be instrumental in changing this barbaric social stigma, before it becomes the part of our deteriorating civilization. It’s easy to say “Bravo, Sunitha you a doing a good job” or “Hats off to you”, but the question is how many of you can be a Sunitha or rather how many of you can bring in a society like Prajwala. It’s time to act than to sit and applaud.