According to 2016’s Global Slavery Index, India is the epicentre of a cruel crisis. Over 18 million people in the country are trapped in modern slavery. Between 3-9 million are victims of sex trafficking, with numbers growing every year. Multiple government initiatives and NGOs have tried to stem the tide. But they are powerless at preventing young girls from being trafficked. Nor have they been able to ‘rescue’ older women, with 77% of ‘rescued’ sex workers returning to sex trade, largely because efforts fail to account for their unique circumstances.

Women in India’s sex trade are locked in a cycle of exploitation and poverty. Forced into work at a young age, they lack employable skills. With their movements monitored by brothel owners, they have no control over their own time and bodies. Having become accustomed to a minimal income, they fear the idea of change. Against their deepest desires, their children also often fail to pursue viable alternatives.

Pioneering menstrual health brand Stayfree believed in partnering women in journeys of meaningful growth. Our brief was simple but daunting – how could we help India’s most marginalized women regain their right to choose their journey – both in life and work?

India is unique in the depth and persistence of stigmas around menstruation. Periods are when discrimination, exclusion and marginalization of women is socially approved and the norm. Across classes and subcultures, periods are believed to be ‘impure.’ Women are banned from entering temples or even their own kitchens. And these biases are passed down generations.

If menstruating women are marginalized in India, sex workers are doubly discriminated against. They exist on society’s periphery and margins, locked in a relationship of mutual distrust with mainstream communities. Sex workers are seen with outright contempt at worst, or indifference and ‘pity’ at best. Which would explain why conventional rehabilition efforts fail with such depressing regularity – they simply do not understand the realities and circumstances of the women they are designed to ‘help.'

It was an opportunity to bring together two taboos, Periods & Prostitution, to create a story of empowerment and progress.

In the course of research, we uncovered a powerful insight – no woman looks forward to her periods. Except for sex workers: because period days are days where they aren’t forced to work. Inspired, we decided to use the power of one taboo to challenge another, conceptualizing Project Free Period - a social initiative that empowered women in the sex trade by giving them a platform to turn their period days into days of opportunity, where they could learn new skills, three days a month.

We partnered with leading Mumbai-based anti-trafficking NGOs (Prerana and Aastha Parivaar) and numerous other professionals to craft and deliver a unique curriculum comprising of skills that were enjoyable and could generate alternative sources of income for sex workers. These skills, such as embroidery, candle-making, soap-making, threading and waxing were easy-to-learn and required minimal raw material and storage. It was capsule community learning, with a difference.

In our quest to understand the lives of our students better, we spent time with sex workers and experienced volunteers in Kamathipura, Asia’s largest red-light district. We learnt that these women were brought into the trade as children, and hence did not have any other skills. Many wanted to pursue other alternatives for themselves and their children, but the fear of ostracization, inability to access meaningful education & fear of facing extreme poverty, kept them rooted to their current realities.

We didn’t want to use the language of ‘rescue’ or ‘rehabilitation.’ Rather, we wanted our students to feel capable of doing something new. Acquiring skills and choosing how to spend their free time gave sex workers a sense of control and agency, and offered them the option to make money differently, spend time enjoyably or at least supplement their income, if they so chose.

We began with custom-designed training workshops, developed after months of consultation with sex workers, and professional skills trainers. Keenly aware of sex workers’ constraints, we developed low-resolution video training modules and distributed free-toolkits through partner NGOs to ensure that time, expenses on raw materials and lack of physical access were never constraints to learning. We wanted to ensure that we could reach out to potential students across the country, wherever they were, even if all they had at their disposal was a free/ low-cost data connection. If they wanted to learn, we would make the resources available.

Our intent was to offer choice, not just learning. We partnered with India’s most prestigious educational institutions (AISEC, MICA, St. Xavier’s), and the country’s largest retail chains (Inorbit, Big Bazaar) to provide a retail network and distribution for finished products. UNICEF committed to upskilling & guiding our volunteers for more impactful training.

Project Free Period (PFP) has fuelled unprecedented conversations around India’s two biggest taboos – periods and prostitution, with our reach soaring at 2.2 billion and counting. Global and international media networks have accelerated our momentum. We know have a network of over 11,200 students across the country; who have helped transform over 100,000 period days into days of skilling.

PFP is a path-breaking model where private sector meets not-for-profit partnership model that a host of India’s biggest brands – Hotstar (media), Ujjivan (banking), Big Bazaar (retail) and Nestle (foods) want to participate in and replicate.

What PFP gives the students is for the first time in their lives they have the power to choose. Choose to leave the profession. Choose to turn away customers who don't wear protection. Most importantly, they have a choice in their children's future.