How has Destiny changed the lives of hundreds of women?

More than ten million women and children are victims of sexual slavery in India. Between prostitution and forced marriages, this number is growing every year and very few concrete solutions are proposed. However, things have started to change in recent years. A new form of struggle is emerging: Non-Governmental Organisations. Focus on one of them today, the Destiny Foundation. A social enterprise that defends women's rights.

The origins

Smarita Sengupta is an entrepreneur who has always been socially committed against social injustice, discrimination and violence against women. Faced with extreme poverty in India, particularly in the slums of Calcutta where many women are forced into prostitution, she decided to create Destiny in 2007 to fight against sex trafficking. According to her, employment, gain of professional skills and training are the solutions allowing victims to reintegrate into society. Moreover, Destiny is an hybrid organization composed of two divisions: Destiny Foundation and Destiny Reflection. The first division is charitable. Its aim is to combat sex trafficking by providing housing and training for victims. Destiny Reflection, is the economic and social division. It offers jobs under respectful working conditions. Destiny Foundation/Reflection is thus a non-profit and profit enterprise, which together disrupt the channels of exploitation of women in Calcutta. Destiny's approach aims to provide social assistance, housing and economic empowerment to girls and young women until adulthood. This solution would reduce, inter alia, the risk of being exploited again by ensuring continuity of care. But how does this support work in practice?

Smarita Sengupta, founder of Destiny Foundation/Reflection

A well-organized system

Destiny Foundation is divided into 3 different activities. First, the company enables girls aged between 7 and 18 years old to benefit from a programme of elementary education in a government hostel in Calcutta. 120 girls from underprivileged backgrounds are housed and educated there. They are usually survivors of human trafficking. The company also has a shelter for women over 18 years old who are at risk of being sexually exploited. Here, the aim is to provide shelter as most of them do not have the necessary resources. Finally, Destiny Foundation's latest activity is organized around a training centre located in one of Calcutta's red-light districts. Here women of all ages learn essential professional skills such as sewing by machine or by hand in order to get a job at Destiny Reflection. In the other section of the company, there are women qualified in sewing, printing, embroidery and pearling. Every day, they create a wide variety of handmade products such as bags, kitchen accessories and home decorations. The success of the social enterprise was not long in coming. More than 435 women and children have completed a program in the 10 years since its creation. The enterprise has also empowered more than 75 women from India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Finally, Destiny has impacted the lives of more than 100 women who were exploited in the slums of Calcutta.

⚠️Did you like the article? Destiny Foundation is organizing a crowdfunding campaign for the purchase of a computer and the recruitment of a digital trainer in order to develop its activities and allow these women to acquire computer skills that will integrate them into the professional world! You can participate in this project by clicking on the following link: https://www.kisskissbankbank.com/en/projects/destiny-foundation