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For most women, their menstrual period is a nuisance they cannot get through quickly enough.
However, the sex workers of Mumbai’s Kamatipura welcome it – it gives them respite from their profession a few days every month.
Feminine hygiene brand Stayfree and its ad agency DDB Mudra are using this insight to collaborate on #ProjectFreePeriod, a vocational training programme to train these women in skills that can lead to their rehabilitation. It meshes with Stayfree’s #DreamsofProgress, which encourages women to normalise the discussion around periods and not let them interfere with their lives.
Rahul Mathew, National Creative Director, DDB Mudra Group, told BusinessLine that identifying skills and courses that catch the women’s interest and keep them engaged is important. Professional skill trainers were roped in to create a course that was condensed into three-day modules.
Taking the aid of Prerana, a Mumbai-based NGO, the project was launched in January. So far, 30-35 women have been a part of this programme.
They are being trained in skills such as making candles, soaps and soft toys, embroidery, henna art and basic beauticians’ tasks.
Mathew says they hope to add more skills, even technical ones such as data entry and certification, too.
These courses now run through the month.
Future plans
The plan is to make it a big, self-sustaining project, Mathew says, adding that they are looking for brand partners for talent training and employment.
The initiative has also compiled a database of volunteers to keep expanding this project. The plan is now to train the women through instructional videos shared on Whatsapp.
Mathew says rescuing the women from the trade they have been forced into means nothing till they are empowered to sustain themselves.
Women in this profession struggle to find other ways to make a living. Often, the rescued return, only to be exploited further. They are in a Catch-22 situation, he points out – they have no time for anything but their work, so they cannot learn, and because they cannot learn, they are trapped in the trade.
It is not easy to initiate a project of this kind. Collaborating with Prerana helped them earn a level of trust, Mathew said.
The women have lived a life of physical, sexual and mental abuse, says Mugdha Dandekar, Project Manager, Prerana.
“A sudden shift to a new livelihood is not an easy task. Seldom do they have the liberty to step out of the red-light area. To think beyond what they do is a rare privilege that they think they do not possess.”
Awareness and support for this initiative will be built through exhibitions of their work. One such show was conducted in Inorbit Mall, Mumbai.
A long way to go
Few such rehabilitation efforts endure, observes Dandekar.
“For a positive outcome, long-term hand-holding and capacity-building, as well as providing the women with initial seed funding to realise an alternative vocation is necessary,” she says.
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