JEEVA SENTHILNATHAN
INDIA & UNITED STATES, 19
Project: Privando
Basic Human Needs: Education, Environment, Health, Safety, Shelter
As a first-generation immigrant from India, Jeeva was devasted to hear about sexual assaults taking place daily in her family’s home country. She knew news stories were just a scratch on the surface, since girls and women were discouraged from reporting sexual crimes in a society where a man’s word is final. In December 2020 Jeeva founded Privando – an organization that protects and helps women in India persevere through sexual assault. Privando empowers women in India with self-defense training, wearable technology to stay safe, sexual harassment education and the tools to create legislation related to sexual harassment. Even before the launch of Privando, Jeeva began working with the administrations of 731 schools across India to share and implement educational resources pertaining to cyberbullying, stalking and gender equality. Privando has worked closely with Indian Government Officials to draft and implement laws to decrease sexual assault, including legislation to mandate sexual education and self-defense in all Indian schools, and to release victim names to their family’s consent for justice. During 2020 Privando supported 1,232 survivors in India, some of whom were at risk for human trafficking, and expanded to 164 chapters across India, the United States and Africa. Jeeva also launched a Podcast to share survivors’ stories and promote Privando’s partnerships, campaigns and initiatives. Since 2019, Jeeva has been traveling from large cities to small villages to collect stories from survivors, assist women in reporting assaults and launched a database to connect women with local chapters. Jeeva hopes to achieve a world where respect for women and gender equity is a commonality.