Prajwala which means ‘an eternal flame’ is a pioneering anti-trafficking organization based in India working on the issue of sex trafficking and sex crime. Established in the year 1996, Prajwala has pan India and International operations.

Prajwala began in 1996 in Hyderabad - a city in the South Indian State of Telangana. It started as a small initiative to prevent inter-generational prostitution, when the government forcibly evicted women in prostitution from Mehboob ki Mehendi - a well-known red-light area in Hyderabad - and the women and their offspring were left destitute. The organization is the brain child of Sunitha Krishnan, who refused to allow herself to be victimized by her personal experience of sexual assault, but channelized the anger and distress of her experience into empathy for other victims of sexual violence. In this she was supported by Bro Jose Vetticattil who brought with him a vast experience of implementing vocational skills programmes for young persons from difficult circumstances. Beginning with rescuing children from brothels, Prajwala gradually found itself having to rescue adults too, when adult women in prostitution began to reach out to Prajwala asking to be rescued.

Since its inception in 1996, Prajwala has reached out to thousands of victims of commercial sexual exploitation and sex crime and has emerged as a world leader in designing and implementing anti sex trafficking programmes that stands on the pillars of prevention, rescue, rehabilitation, reintegration and advocacy. Prajwala has also established a Survivors Network - Aparajitha- as a support system for survivors.

JOURNEY SO FAR

In the nearly 3 decades of its existence, Prajwala has done phenomenal work to help rescue and rehabilitate women and children who have been victims of sex trafficking and sex crime. However, Prajwala is fully aware of the ever growing scale of exploitation of women and children for sexual slavery and has a long way to achieve its vision.

OPERATIONS

Prajwala provides a holistic approach to the problem of sex trafficking and sex crime right from prevention at source to reintegration of victims into mainstream society. With over two and half decades of moulding its operations, Prajwala has developed best-practice model suitable for adaptation globally. Activities of Prajwala can be divided into five main pillars of operation.