Fighting AIDS, decriminalising LGBTQ+, and legalising dance bars are only some of the achievements by a woman fighting stereotypes in Mumbai's second-largest slum

• Prabha Desai is the director of Sanmitra Trust, a voluntary trust that works on the ground level in Mumbai's second-largest slum — Malwani.
  
• In an interview with Business Insider, Desai shed light on how having the right laws in place is an integral step towards fighting stigmas in society and ensuring identity.
  
• Desai's has been a part of the advocacy to scrap Section 377, fight Mumbai's HIV epidemic, and legalise dance bars in the city.
  

It's not easy to spread hope in Mumbai's second-largest slum, Malwani. But, Prabha Desai is fighting against the stigmas to ensure employability and dignity of labour for women in the colony.

On the ground, she works with female and floating sex workers, HIV+ children and women, and transgender individuals within the community. However, as the director of Sanmitra Trust, she's also done a lot of advocacy work — including decriminalising homosexuality by getting Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) scrapped and fighting against the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, which curtails the rights of sex workers in the country.

"Final outcome is that we have a more inclusive society and sex is longer stigmatised, at least legally. Socially, it will take some time," Desai told Business Insider in an interview.

Getting the law on your side
Before 2017, Mumbai was engrossed in a battle against HIV with no laws in place to keep it in check. As an activist, Desai was able to participate in the process of bringing about the HIV Aids Act through a lawyer's collective. With a concrete law in place, she could now work with the police more effectively to remove the taboo around HIV.

"Law creates an enabling environment on paper… In the last ten years, we have worked with the police for AIDS control and made them aware that we're not doing illegal things — we're not doing wrong things. First, remove the bias from your mind," she said.

Now, every police station in Desai's community cooperates with her, but that's largely thanks to the putting concrete laws in place to strengthen her argument. People have also come to the realisation that the fight against AIDS isn't a one-person task but something for which the community needs to rally together.

"Things are moving now. If law is not your side — on the side of these people who are facing discrimination and isolation — then there are so many problems. The biggest obstacles are over," she remarked.

Women taking charge
Having the right laws in place helps isolated women in society have an identity. Desai has worked with lawyers to legalise dance bars in Mumbai and scrap Section 377 to ensure to create a more inclusive society.

"We fought against the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act. We participated and demanded that it should be decriminalised and it shouldn't be an offence. Women should not be punished," she said.

However, that's only one part of the problem. The second is making sure that these women have other options — a way to participate in the economy and be financially independent, by having access to opportunity. In service of that goal, Desai set up an alternative trade skill training centre.

Now, she's in the process of launching her own mega-textile cluster for tannery operations with 500 women on board.

Other changes have been happening on the ground as well. Women in Malwani are now looking to drive, have their own bank accounts — and know how to bank online. 52 women from the community got their licences last year, of whom four were HIV+.

"In my area, now women wearing a burqa and going on scooty is common, nobody looks at them also," said Desai.

There's still a long road ahead to fix all the problems that Malwani faces. The area has its own infrastructural problems — like lack of drainage and sanitation — which makes work twice as hard. But, with the law on their side, Desai feels things are going to improve even faster now.