Long before public protests filled the streets of Kochi and legal battles captured the nation's attention, Sr Ranit faced her quietest, most agonising struggle away from the spotlight. In the aftermath of the sexual assault between 2014 and 2016, the overwhelming mental trauma, helplessness and looming institutional pressure drove her to the absolute brink, leaving her contemplating walking away from the nunhood entirely.

What stopped her from walking away was not an easing of her pain, but the realisation of the ripple effect her departure would cause among the younger nuns she had nurtured.

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“I am one of the founding members of the congregation,” Sr Ranit recalled. “Then many juniors whom I was teaching, whom I was taking care of, they also told, ‘We also will leave if you are leaving the congregation’. Then I thought, why should I destroy their life also? Then I stayed back.”

Deciding to anchor herself for her junior sisters, Sr Ranit chose to fight the ordeal legally, starting a long journey of survival that tested her nunhood to its absolute limits.

While the legal process unfolded, a second, quieter trial began within the convent walls. By 2023, the congregation’s financial support was completely cut off. Sr Ranit and her fellow nuns who were in support of her were left without basic allowances for food or essential medicines.

Even qualifications provided no shield. When sisters holding Master’s degrees in Social Work sought internships, external institutions turned them away, wary of institutional backlash.

Refusing to be broken, the nuns created their own doorway to dignity. With help from well-wishers and solidarity groups like Save Our Sisters (SOS), they purchased a single sewing machine.
Sr Ranit, drawing on basic tailoring skills from her past, sat down to teach Sr Alphy and Sr Ancita. What began as a desperate attempt to put food on the table quickly turned into a thriving craft—stitching churidars, co-ord sets and intricate hand-embroidered table runners.
 

Today, that solitary sewing machine has expanded into a workshop with five high-grade machines, complete with specialised interlocking tools and shadow-work embroidery. To manage orders from exhibitions in Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Kottayam, they have even hired two local workers.

They named their brand 'Stand By Me', a tribute to their bond and the community of supporters who refused to let them fold. As Sr Ranit said on their journey, “If we are strong, there are good people in this world... Maybe not a crowd at first, but one by one it will become a crowd that will stand with us.”