Dr. Prasanna Gettu receives the Anne Klein Women’s Award 2020.
Dr. Prasanna Gettu co-founded the International Foundation for Crime Prevention and Victim Care (PCVC), an organisation that provides a comprehensive range of support services for women and queer individuals affected by domestic and inter-personal violence, in 2001. Since 2005, after the other co-founders pulled out, Ms. Gettu has been shouldering responsibility of the organisation, with help from a board of members and staff. Through its flagship programs, PCVC offers immediate emergency support in the form of its 24-hour toll-free helpline, safety planning, police interfacing and medical and legal referrals; long-term rehabilitative support involving physical, psycho-social and economic rehabilitation of domestic violence and burns survivors; and preventive intervention programs in schools, colleges and workplaces.
Ms. Gettu is one of the very few practising victimologists in the world. Her doctoral thesis, titled „Corruption – A Public View‟, of the year 2002, looks into criminal justice systems. She holds a post-graduate diploma from Tokiwa University, Japan in Victimology and Victim Assistance. She has received professional training in domestic violence and crisis intervention. She believes in constant research to understand and apply the best practices from all over, thus partaking in seminars and conferences. Although she boasts an impressive record of academic qualifications, Ms. Gettu says her on-the-ground experience of 20 years equals multiple PhDs.
Her selected publications include “India: the state of criminology in a developing nation”, Routledge handbook of International Criminology (2011); “White Collar Crimes: A Victimological Perspective”, Human Rights and Victimology, Devasia (1998); and “Opinion of Criminal Justice and Non-Criminal Justice Professionals Towards Corruption: A Comparative Study”, Indian Journal of Criminology (1998).
She is on the mandatory sexual harassment committees of over 50 companies as the NGO representative. She is also part of the Internal Complaints Committee for Prevention of Sexual Harassment in Workplace for a large number of corporate and business houses and government departments.
