Sexual Slavery's Biggest Challenge-Civil Society Silence

                                                                   Image from Prajwala
Can you break your culture of silence? Can you offer compassion to survivors of sexual slavery? Will you hire them, let your children study with them, treat them as equal human beings?


TED reports "Each year, some two million women and children, many younger than 10 years old, are bought and sold around the globe. Impassioned by the silence surrounding the sex-trafficking epidemic, Sunitha Krishnan co-founded Prajwala, or "eternal flame," a group in Hyderabad that rescues women from brothels and educates their children to prevent second-generation prostitution. Prajwala runs 17 schools throughout Hyderabad for 5,000 children and has rescued more than 2,500 women from prostitution, 1,500 of whom Krishnan personally liberated.

Krishnan has sparked India's anti-trafficking movement by coordinating government, corporations, and NGOs. She forged NGO-corporate partnerships with companies like Amul India, Taj Group of Hotels and Heritage Hospitals to find jobs for rehabilitated women. In collaboration with UN agencies and other NGOs, she established printing and furniture shops that have rehabilitated some 300 survivors. Krishnan works closely with the government to define anti-trafficking policy, and her recommendations for rehabilitating sex victims have been passed into state legislation."


In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young survivors rebuild their lives. See her harrowing TED India talk below.

Dance to Change the World

How did a dance get Nehru to investigate dowry deaths?

How can a dance convince villagers to make their own clean water when governments fail?

To find the answers to these two questions, you'll have to watch the dance video posted below by Mallika Sarabhai, a dancer/actor/politician, who tells a transformative story through dance and argues that the arts may be the most powerful way to effect change, whether political, social or personal. As her website states: "When asked what I like to be introduced as - dancer, choreographer, publisher, activist, writer, actor – I tend to say that I am a communicator. And that all the others are the different languages in which I communicate. There are many things that concern me, and that I think concern many many people around the world. The web is a great place to [communicate] as you know."

Watch her in full effect at her TED India talk below: