Suresh Kumar is an Acumen Fellow and Executive Director at Centre DIRECT, where he fights against child labor and trafficking, with a focus on prosecuting child traffickers. He assists law enforcement agencies in rescuing the victims, prosecuting the traffickers and oppressive employers, and providing anti-trafficking training. Over the past two decades, he has trained more than 9,000 law enforcement personnel, 12,000 youth, and 30,000 community members on combating child trafficking. 

Suresh also files Public Interest Litigations (PIL) to secure relief for vulnerable children. He has been working to rebuild the lives of more than 700 child trafficking survivors in Bihar who were rescued from bangle factories at Jaipur in Rajasthan. Suresh spearheads the Child Trafficking Survivors Collective Movement in Bihar. He writes on child protection issues for the leading newspapers in India. Suresh studied law at the Delhi University and authored “Child Trafficking The Fight For Freedom.”

Under the Child Labour Free Jaipur Project in Bihar Suresh oversees rehabilitation and legal support activities to child trafficking survivors and their families across nine districts. This includes regular follow-up, home visits, facilitating enrolment, and re-enrolment in school or vocational training for all child trafficking survivors. He also works on supporting access to benefits under government schemes and compensation for eligible rescued children. 

IVLP Impact Award Project: Survivor Engagement in Combating Child Trafficking

The project engaged 55 child trafficking survivors in combating child trafficking in six communities. Training was provided to enable survivors to fully reintegrate back into their communities, including on the welfare and compensation schemes available to help them gain a stable economic footing and on the laws to help them become informed advocates and move towards child trafficking-free communities. Project participants have become active youth group members and are engaged in keeping a watch against machinations of human traffickers and thwarting human trafficking attempts in their communities.

"I feel more confident now. My leadership journey under the project has reformed me. It gave me a hope and direction to my life to save children through active participation of community people in preventing child trafficking." - Project Participant

IVLP Exchange Experience 

Suresh participated in the IVLP Project Combating Trafficking in Persons, organized by the U.S. Department of State and Cultural Vistas, in partnership with GlobalAustin, World Affairs Council of South Texas, WorldDenver, and Georgia Council for International Visitors.

Suresh's exchange experience led to the development of his IVLP Impact Award Project: "I visited an organization in Denver that was working on survivor empowerment [and that] has inspired me to do the same back in my home country."

U.S. Communities Visited

Washington, DC; Denver, CO; Atlanta, GA; Austin, TX; Corpus Christi, TX

Country: India 

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