Samridhi Pandey

Imagine if a woman has the courage to take charge of her body, reveal the fire in her eyes, and take the world by her force. Imagine if we were living in a world where a man was afraid of a woman taking his job. If we were living in a world where a woman walks into meetings confidently, applies for jobs she isn’t fully qualified for, and is not talked over. Where she needs no permission to do paid work and splits household work with the men in the house equally.

The Adi Ganga running down South Kolkata’s Tollygunge area, an essential water channel, has now turned into a toxic sewer due to untreated waste discharge. The air around it is unbreathable. People pinch their noses tight when crossing it. I have witnessed this since childhood, and nothing has changed. Solid waste management is a huge issue India grapples with.

In a culture where both periods and sex work are stigmatised; talking about both at the same time has only attracted silence and ignorance. Periods are typically not discussed outside a comfort zone. Similarly, sex work is spoken of in hushed tones. A question that often pops up in conversations on periods and sex work is; how menstruation impacts the financial of sex workers. What steps do they have to take to mitigate its impact? How is their health affected? What about their emotional well-being?