Conference

Volume 1

Agenda:

Lack of Legal Protection and the Discrimination faced by Sex Workers in India

 

Date: 16th December 2022
Time: 5:30-8:30 PM (IST)

 

Online conference

 

Guest Speaker:

 

Sunitha Krishnan

 

Sunitha Krishnan is the founder of Prajwala – Asia’s largest institution combating commercial sexual exploitation. Since its inception in 1996 at Hyderabad, Sunitha has assisted in the rescue of more than 26,000 young girls and women across 12 countries. Recipient of the fourth highest Indian Civilian Honor- Padma Shri, and recognized as 150 “Fearless Women in the World’ by Newsweek, Sunitha envisions a world free of sex trafficking and sex crime and has galvanised her vision by confronting traffickers, supporting survivors and developing innovative models of prevention to disrupt the cycle of intergenerational exploitation.

 

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

 

In 2015, Sunitha launched #ShameTheRapist campaign which resulted in the Supreme Court of India to form a committee to block rape videos online and the Ministry of Home Affairs setting up the first ever cyber-crime portal to report violent sexually abusive online content. The PIL against Facebook, Google, Yahoo and other intermediaries brought about the first major regulatory reform in India to curb 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 bring a comprehensive legislation to combat human trafficking in India. Sunitha has played an instrumental role in drafting several victim centric policies including the first ever Anti Trafficking Policy in India, policy for Minimum Standards of Care, Sex Offenders Registry and introducing video conferencing to record evidence of a trafficked victim. She is responsible for bringing out comprehensive training manuals and handbooks for judicial officers, prosecuting officers, law enforcers and other duty bearers on human trafficking . For her herculean contribution to combat trafficking, she has been recognised by the Government of the United States, France and Germany. She is also recipient of the Stree Shakti Award, Tallberg Global Leadership Prize, Franco-German Prize For Human Rights, Vital Voices Leadership Prize, Living Legends Award, John Jay International Award, DVF Award,Aurora Peace Prize and CNN-IBN Real Hero Award among several others.

Anoushka Reddy


Anoushka Reddy is a junior at Oakridge International School, Hyderabad. She has a strong inclination towards global politics, economics, and international relations. She has a vast spectrum of interests ranging from reading and debating to even keeping up with the latest fashion and runway looks. Additionally, she’s a co-host of a podcast that addresses social issues from a teen’s perspective and has also been dedicated towards community service from a young age.

 

An advocate for equal rights, she truly believes that our generation has the potential to attain inclusion of the youth’s voice in leadership, policy and practice.

 

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Prisha Agarwal


Prisha Agarwal is a DP1 student at Oakridge International School, studying Psychology, Economics, and Mathematics at the higher level. Prisha is a perfectionist who takes initiative and gets things done.

She loves fashion from shopping at brands like Chanel to Lululemon, and has chanelled her passion to design clothes using sustainable materials to vocalize feminism. When Prisha isn’t engaged in seeking academic validation or obsessing over her latest fictional read, she is binge watching Gossip Girl fawning over Blair and even naming her dog after Chuck Bass from the show.

Prisha is compassionate, approachable, and loves to keep up with the latest politics. Her hunger for knowledge and determination to turn information into action makes her a perfect fit for The Blu-Prnt.

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Anish Lakamsani


Anish Lakamsani is a DP1 student at Oakridge International School, studying Business Management, Economics, and Mathematics at the higher level. Anish is a goal getter who is determined to achieve everything he dreams of.

He is a passionate football player who has been playing the sport since he was six years old and is a diehard Manchester City fan. If you were to ever catch him doing something other than playing football or drowning himself in the pains of school, he would be binge watching shows on Netflix. From fries to sushi, food is his holy grail. He considers himself to be a forever student who is always eager to learn more.

Anish excels at effectively taking charge and decision-making in difficult situations. He hopes to make your experience with The Blu-Prnt the best it can be.

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Druthi Rao


Druthi Rao Katikaneni is an IBDP-1 student at Oakridge International School, taking Visual Arts, Maths, and Physics at the higher level. She plans to pursue a career in architecture eventually.

A classic introvert, and a bit of a perfectionist (if not just a frantic to-do list maker), she’s usually obsessing over dogs that she cannot bring home, crying about the sleep lost over schoolwork and doodling in the margins of her books. Being the compulsive bollywood re-watcher that she is, she’s always ready to recite her favourite dialogues and groove to some classic Hindi numbers.

She believes that The Blu-Prnt is a platform that could instil a great sense of accountability and induce hope in young minds. She hopes that her contribution to the conference allows participants to have the best experience as they engage in meaningful, collaborative conversations.

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Sourish Reddy


Sourish Reddy is an 11th grader at Oakridge International school and an aspiring lawyer. He believes that it is crucial to keep ourselves informed about the various issues of international importance, and as the generation of tomorrow we all have an obligation to help transform the society for the better. This is why it brings him great pleasure to be the policy head of The Blu-Prnt which allows him to provide a platform for others where they can discuss, deliberate, and learn about these various issues. He has attended several MUNs in various capacities which has provided him with an in-depth knowledge about the world around us.

He's a total weeb and loves to watch anime or read Manga. In his free time, he also likes playing badminton or reading books about mythology.

That being said, he hopes to make The Blu-Prnt an amazing initiative after which individuals can say that they have learnt something and have had fun at the same time. He looks forward to seeing you all participate

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Anika Sowdari


Anika Sowdari is a grade 11 student studying Maths, Economics, and Accounts at Chirec International school. She aims to pursue accounting in the US.

She has a broad spectrum of talents, being a dedicated basketball player and a trained dancer, who tries to be the best at whatever she takes up. From learning a Matt Steffanina routine to perfecting a jelly layup, she can do it all. Anika has the capability to balance her academics with her social life. She is a fun-loving person who is super approachable any time of the day.

Her time-consuming perfectionism is what makes her fit for the role of head of marketing and creative design. She can’t wait to contribute to the future success of The Blu-Prnt.

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Anirudh Reddy


Anirudh is a recent engineering graduate from Stanford University, and the founder of Einsite, a startup building AI and computer vision technology to make industrial machines smarter. Einsite was recently acquired by a tractor company to help make farm machines intelligent and autonomous. In his free time, he enjoys reading and talking about a wide range of topics, from tech and software to history, and philosophy

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Niranjan Reddy


Mr. S. Niranjan Reddy is an elected Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha and a distinguished lawyer practising in the Supreme Court of India.

After graduating from Symbiosis Law School, Pune in 1992, he joined the legal practice at Hyderabad and was designated as a Senior Counsel in 2016 having appeared in several high profile cases. He was the standing counsel for the prestigious Election Commission of India and Medical Council of India. He also regularly appears as Special Senior Counsel for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh in various matters.

Mr. Reddy is also an avid film lover who co-wrote the screenplay for the movies “The Ghazi Attack” and “Ghazi” which won a National Award. To add to the list, he is also an art enthusiast and founder trustee of Art@Telangana, a trust for the promotion of local artists in Telangana.

He is vigorously pursuing issues and matters of public policy after becoming a Member of the Parliament and is on the Parliamentary Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs. He is also a member of the Committee on Subordinate Legislation of the Parliament.

Mr. Niranjan Reddy comes with insightful experience in understanding how the social realities of our time intersect with the law.

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