In Business For Freedom
Sonagacchi FAST FACTS:
Oldest and largest red-light
district in Calcutta, India
10,000 sex workers
20,000+ men visit every day
The Business of Freedom
Now, prostitution is not the only business in Sonagacchi. Slavery is being challenged by a company whose focus is freedom.
Freeset’s business is actually freedom. It gives women a positive choice. For the first time in their lives they can decide for themselves to leave the sex trade and make plans for the future. This freedom is achieved through making and selling quality jute bags and T-shirts. The goal is not just freedom for the families of Freeset, it’s freedom for an entire community of outcasts. The brothels no longer have Sonagacchi to themselves.
Transformation
Where do you begin with such an ambitious endeavour? One approach is to
rescue the women from their situation. The problem is, this creates an
empty room waiting to be filled by a new girl, an opening for another
daughter to be stolen, another innocent to be drugged and raped. Sadly,
there's no shortage of girls for this soul-destroying business.
Freeset works differently. The business premises are deliberately
located on the fringe of Sonagacchi. Women leave their life in the sex
trade but stay in their homes, just a short walk from work. The goal: to
transform Sonagacchi from within, replacing one trade with another.
Over time, the community will be filled with more and more people free
from prostitution.
All profits benefit the women and grow the business so even more can experience freedom.
Profit for People
Freeset believes that businesses can make a powerful difference in
people’s lives rather than just filling the pockets of the people who own and run them. Clearly for a business to be sustainable it must make
products that people want to buy and sell them at a profit or it goes broke. The key for Freeset is that all those profits are used to
benefit the women and to grow the business, so more and more can experience freedom.
Freeset uses an "upside down" model that turns the normal principles of
running a business on their head. Businesses generally choose the best
people for a job and pay them the lowest possible wages. Freeset employs
women on the basis of their need for freedom, rather than their
skill-level. They are trained and then paid well above the going market
rate. The transformation in the women’s lives is clearly apparent,
simply because they’ve been given a chance.
Sandya really struggled during her three months of intensive
training. Some extra one-on-one attention means today she sews quality
bags and her self-confidence has improved immensley.
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