About Triveni Acharya
Triveni Acharya is the President and CEO of Rescue Foundation, one of India's leading anti-human-trafficking organizations, based in Mumbai. Over three decades, her work has helped rescue and rehabilitate thousands of women and girls trafficked into forced prostitution across India, with the organization's reach extending to repatriations across South Asia and beyond. A former journalist, Acharya's mission began in 1993 when a reporting assignment in Mumbai's Kamathipura red-light district led her into a brothel where she found girls being held against their will. Alongside her husband, Balkrishna Acharya, she carried out her first rescue soon after. In 2000, the couple founded Rescue Foundation. Following her husband's death in 2005, Acharya took over full leadership of the organization. Under her direction, Rescue Foundation has rescued more than 7,000 women and girls from forced prostitution through intelligence-led operations conducted with law enforcement. The organization runs four shelter homes — in Mumbai, Boisar, Pune, and Delhi — providing medical care, counseling, education, and vocational training, and has repatriated survivors to Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Kenya, and Nigeria. Acharya's work has been recognized internationally, including the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award (2010), the Civil Courage Prize (2011), the World of Children Humanitarian Award (2013, 2015), recognition among the President of India's 100 Women Achievers (2016) and last year with the Jamnalal Bajaj Award.