the beginning
Odanadi’s founding duo, Stanly KV and Parashuram ML (fondly referred together as ‘Stanly Parashu’), launched a relentless campaign in 1990-91 to curb and expose the flesh trade in India.
In the mid-80s, when Stanly and Parashu were working as journalists, for one story they wanted to speak to the lowest strata of society - Dalits, untouchables etc. Speaking with a bullock cart owner one day, Stanley and Parashu were approached by a woman wishing to talk. The small crowd that had gathered urged Stanly and Parashuram not to talk to her. Although the people in the crowd were themselves considered outcasts of the society, they regarded this woman as worse than them - she was a prostitute. She challenged Stanly and Parashuram asking them what they planned to do after getting a good story, and telling them that they were just like all the others: in actual fact, unconcerned with the lives of the poor and destitute.
Moved by this challenge, Stanly and Parashu pledged to do their best to help that part of the society that was not deemed human: the prostituted.
Prior to starting Odanadi, Stanly-Parashu undertook a ten-month pilot study ("Bodies For A Meal") of the socio-economic conditions of prostituted women and their children in Mysore district. As a result, Odanadi Seva Samsthe emerged as a registered trust in 1992 to be the 'Odanadi' of this ravaged group of the society.
Since then, Odanadi Seva Samsthe's pioneering efforts to empower and rehabilitate these sexually-exploited women and children and the organisation's relentless campaign to expose and curb flesh trade has spread state-wide. Stanly and Parashu have helped Odanadi emerge as a leading and powerful voice, advocating the cause of prostituted women in India.