Background
Traditionally, women sex workers face stigma and discrimination within their family and in the society because sex work is considered to be against moral and social norms in India. The result of being ostracized by the society, their own deep-rooted inhibitions, and poor financial condition, forces sex workers to engage in unsafe sexual practices. This makes them and their partners highly vulnerable to STI(Sexually Transmitted Infections) and HIV. In addition, they are ignorant about the means to improve their lives and livelihoods as most of them are semi or fully illiterate. All these factors often make them resist holistic interventions to reach out to them. Project Margasusi, being implemented by Vidyanikethan, in Hosur, with the support of Terres Des Homes, Netherlands, reaches out to commercial sex workers with holistic interventions to improve their lives and livelihoods in the two districts of Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri in a Tamil Nadu, a state in south India.

Nature of interventions
Project Margususi’s interventions addresses the key health related concerns of commercial sex workers in the following ways:
· Creating awareness among sex workers about the cause and treatment of sexual infections, and HIV,
· Motivating them to access government sponsored health check ups for detection of sexual infection or HIV,
· Creating awareness about safe sexual practices, including organizing demonstrations of condom usage,
· Sensitizing about various practices for better hygiene, improved nutrition and general good health,
· Providing information about social entitlements, and means to access medical treatment and care.

Impact
· Improved personal health and hygiene, by preventing and reducing the incidences of of water borne disease. The sex workers regularly boil water to make it safe for consumption, clean and disinfect the drains, bathrooms and toilets for better sanitation.
· Reduction in seasonal as well as general health disorders as care is maintained accordingly (importance of drinking water to avoid dehydration, awareness about home based remedies, and herbal properties of commonly available vegetables, roots and greens)
· Preparation of nutritious and balanced diet by sex workers as they are sensitized about the nutritional value of various cereals, fruits and vegetables, especially for growing children and those with specific health disorders.
· Increase in the voluntary testing of blood for HIV, and visits to health centres for check ups for any sexual infections. · HIV Positive commercial sex workers are accessing medical treatment in an assured manenr, without any myths and misconceptions, panic or confusion about the infection.

Thus, Project Margasusi’s health based interventions not only addresses the key global issue of HIV among the vulnerable population but also paves the way for change in a larger dimension by improving the socio-economic status of sex workers and addressing negative attitudes in order to create a favourable climate to integrate them in the social mainstream.