Despite economic & technological progress fuelling India’s status as an economic powerhouse, even some of the most privileged sections of society continued to perpetuate a cycle of shame and victimization, based on a long history of taboos entrenched in Indian culture. Often, women seemed to be at the receiving end of these biases – whether it was under the guise of traditions or even biological processes like menstruation.

In this context, it is no surprise that women in the sex trade were doubly stigmatized by a society that should have been more sensitive to their challenges. Tricked and trafficked into sex work, this marginalized community of 9 million women are abused and exploited on a daily basis. Unable to find any other employment or housing opportunities due to prevailing societal prejudices, they lack alternatives, believing that the exploitative sex trade is an inevitability for them.

Stayfree is a pioneering menstrual health brand but also believes in women’s agency. How could we partner one of India’s most marginalized communities to access and express their agency?

Forced into sex work at an early age, trafficked women are deprived of the opportunity to learn and develop skills. 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 ‘rescue,’ rehabilitation and reintegration efforts fail with such depressing regularity – they simply do not understand the realities and circumstances of the women they are designed to help.

But while women in the sex trade are undoubtedly marginalized, so too is any menstruating Indian woman, whom society consistently discriminates against when she is on her period. Across classes and subcultures, periods are believed to be ‘impure.’ Women are banned from entering temples or even their own kitchens or eating certain kinds of food on period days. These biases are passed on through generations.

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 our students’ lives better, we spent time with sex workers and experienced volunteers in Kamathipura, Asia’s largest red-light district. Many of them might have wanted to pursue other alternatives or wanted their children to have broader horizons. But the pathways to change were challenging. The fear of ostracization & the belief that they may end up returning to conditions of extreme poverty, kept them rooted to their current realities.

We didn’t want to use the language of ‘rescue’ or ‘rehabilitation.’ 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 or at least supplement their income, if they so chose. Most importantly, they could explore possibilities – it not for themselves, then for their daughters.

We began with custom-designed training workshops, developed after months of consultation with sex workers and domain experts. Every detail took practical considerations of our students’ lives into account – from potential to earn income, to raw materials needed. We partnered with India’s most prestigious educational institutions (AISEC, MICA, St. Xavier’s), as well the largest retail chains (Inorbit, Big Bazaar) to provide a retail network and distribution for finished products. Olympic medallists and celebrities spread the word on our behalf, inviting volunteers for vocational training. UNICEF committed to upskilling & guiding them for greater impact.

We also developed low-resolution video training modules and distributed free-toolkits through partner NGOs to ensure that time, expenses and 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 feature phone.

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.