Sunita Lakra still remembers the moment she realised something was deeply wrong. While she was completing her graduation in Ranchi around 2003 and 2004, girls from her school began disappearing one after another. When she visited their homes, families would simply say they had gone to Delhi for work. Many of them did not return for years.
At the time, she did not even know the term “human trafficking”. People only said that girls were being “sold”. That experience became the starting point of a journey that has since taken her from working on anti-human trafficking initiatives to advocating for tribal rights, women’s rights, youth leadership, and constitutional values through her work and the platform Voice of Adivasi.
When unanswered questions became a calling
Growing up and studying in Ranchi, Sunita witnessed migration as a common reality in Jharkhand. Yet she gradually realised that while migration was normalised, very few people understood what safe migration actually meant.
While speaking to The Logical Indian, she recalled how witnessing girls disappear from her community pushed her towards the social sector.
“I noticed that girls in my school were suddenly disappearing. When I visited their homes, their families would say they had gone to Delhi for work, but they wouldn’t return for years. At that time, we didn’t even know the word ‘trafficking’; the common phrase was simply that girls were being ‘sold’.”
Although she wanted to work on these issues, she initially had little awareness of the social development sector. She explored pursuing social work in Ranchi but could not afford the fees. Instead, she completed her Master’s degree through IGNOU and continued looking for opportunities that aligned with her growing commitment.
Choosing to stand with women
Sunita’s work naturally evolved towards women affected by trafficking because of what she had seen within her own community and family.
“I saw women suffering firsthand.”
She explained that despite the common perception that tribal societies are more equal, they remain patriarchal in many ways, with women carrying the responsibility of managing homes, children, and community life. Watching the lives of her grandmothers and mothers shaped her understanding of these realities and strengthened her resolve to work alongside women.
Determined to understand the issue more deeply, she travelled to Sonagachi in Kolkata to see whether women from Jharkhand were among those caught in the sex trade.
The experience left a lasting impact.
She described seeing women forced into sex work for as little as ₹15 to ₹20 as “shaping and harrowing”, adding that the visit kept her awake at night.
Learning from the ground
Around 2005 and 2006, Sunita found an opportunity through the classifieds section of newspapers. She joined the Anti-Human Trafficking Network in Ranchi, a platform that worked across Jharkhand.
Through this work, she began to understand the scale of the problem. In several villages, seven to ten girls had gone missing, yet there were neither official records nor First Information Reports documenting their disappearance.
Later, during 2011 and 2012, she moved to Delhi, where her work expanded beyond trafficking. She engaged with issues related to gender discrimination, LGBTQIA+ communities, and sexuality. The experience also broadened her understanding of caste discrimination and tribal issues, helping her connect different forms of social exclusion.
The challenges behind every rescue
In conversation with The Logical Indian, Sunita reflected on one of the most difficult aspects of her work, which often continued long after a rescue operation ended.
She recalled rescuing a girl from Agra after seven or eight years, only to find that neither her family nor her village was willing to accept her because she had returned with a child.
According to Sunita, women who return after being trafficked are frequently labelled as “Delhi returns”, with assumptions made about their character instead of recognition of what they have survived.
The work also came with personal risks. Traffickers regularly threatened her, telling her they knew where she lived and warning that she could be kidnapped. Alongside the mental strain of such threats, she also faced questions from her own family about why she continued doing this work despite the dangers.
Expanding the fight for rights and identity
Today, Sunita’s work extends beyond trafficking to focus on tribal rights and self-governance.
She works around the implementation of the PESA Act, which seeks to strengthen Gram Sabhas and local self-governance within tribal communities.
Another issue she actively supports is the demand for the Sarna Code, which she describes as a matter of existence and identity for Adivasi communities seeking distinct recognition in official records. In 2020, she launched an online petition supporting the demand, which received 7,000 signatures.
From 2020 onwards, Sunita also began working with Dalit and OBC communities in the Bundelkhand and Chambal regions to spread the values of the Constitution among young people. As part of this effort, she helped build a network of 100 youth and women’s organisations, bringing together nearly 5,000 young people to work on issues affecting their communities.
During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, she was involved in an online petition addressed to the Central Government that highlighted the hardships faced by migrant labourers walking back to their villages during the nationwide lockdown. The petition demanded arrangements for food, drinking water, and transportation, and received over five lakh online signatures.
Reflecting on her journey, Sunita said she has remained actively engaged with women’s and youth issues for nearly two decades. Alongside addressing trafficking, her work has consistently focused on the concerns of tribal women as well as issues of water, forests, and land, which she sees as central to the lives and rights of Adivasi communities.
Her advocacy has also included helping women access livelihood opportunities and using media as a tool to raise awareness, including through initiatives in Bihar.
Building future leaders through Voice of Adivasi
Believing that communities should be able to tell their own stories, Sunita founded a network called Voice of Adivasi.
Although it has not yet been formally registered as an NGO because of limited resources, the initiative focuses on developing second-line leadership among tribal youth.
Every year, around 15 tribal youths receive training in community media and journalism so they can highlight issues affecting their communities through social media and other platforms.
For Sunita, creating more community voices is as important as raising awareness herself.
Looking beyond rescue
Sunita believes that the gaps in the existing system remain significant.
She pointed out that rescued girls often have nowhere safe to rebuild their lives because systemic loopholes persist, including problems within government shelter homes.
She also spoke about the severe violence many survivors have endured.
According to her, some girls shared that they had been branded with hot pans or beaten with broken glass because they were unfamiliar with handling luxury household items such as glassware.
These experiences, she says, reveal that rehabilitation requires much more than rescue alone.
A journey rooted in community
From noticing girls quietly disappear from her neighbourhood to working across issues of trafficking, gender justice, constitutional values, tribal identity, and youth leadership, Sunita Lakra’s journey reflects how one experience can shape decades of community engagement.
Through her work on anti-human trafficking, advocacy for the PESA Act and the Sarna Code, campaigns supporting migrant workers, constitutional awareness among young people, and the development of Voice of Adivasi, she continues to strengthen the voices of communities that are often overlooked.
For Sunita, meaningful change lies not only in responding to injustice but also in ensuring that communities have the knowledge, leadership, and platforms to speak for themselves.
The Logical Indian’s Perspective
Sunita Lakra’s journey reminds us that social challenges rarely exist in isolation. Unsafe migration, human trafficking, gender inequality, and the struggle for tribal rights are deeply interconnected, requiring responses that go beyond rescue and rehabilitation. Her work highlights the importance of strengthening local leadership, protecting constitutional values, and creating spaces where communities can advocate for their own rights.
As India continues to strive for inclusive development, stories like Sunita’s demonstrate that sustainable change is built by investing in people, listening to marginalised voices, and enabling communities to shape their own future.
How can communities work together to make migration safer, protect vulnerable people from trafficking, and empower young leaders to drive change from within?
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