Washington Post Examines Program in India To Promote Safer-Sex Messages
The Washington Post on Monday examined a project in India in which health workers "re-spin" safer-sex messages to emphasize the pleasure-related benefits of such practices. The initiative was launched by Anne Philpott, founder of the Pleasure Project. According to the Post, Philpott began the program after promoting female condoms in India, Sri Lanka, Senegal and Zimbabwe as an "erotic accessory." In addition, over the last four years she has "pushed the pleasure principle at AIDS conferences in Bangkok, Sri Lanka and Mexico," the Post reports. "The whole debate about safe sex has been conducted around fear, danger, disease and death," Philpott said, adding, "It is negative. We forgot the pursuit of pleasure. We have to put the sexy back into safer sex." According to Philpott, safer-sex messages often are treated in a "clinical manner or like a teacher wagging their finger." She added that it is "more effective" when health workers find "creative ways to incorporate pleasure and desire into the sexual-health dialogue."
Health workers are using the approach to promote the female condom in India, and the government plans to increase female condom distribution among 200,000 sex workers, two years after the product was introduced limitedly in the country, the Post reports. According to a study by the National AIDS Control Organization, sex workers said they were able to persuade clients to use protection by citing the potential for enhanced pleasure. In addition, the Post reports that the number of nongovernmental organizations using the "pleasure rationale to promote safe sex is slowly growing in India." Arushi Singh, a resource officer for the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which trains health educators in South Asia, said, "Talking about disease and fear haven't worked very well. People believe they are in a safe relationship and that disease does not apply to them." She continued, "But pleasure applies to everybody."
As part of such efforts, a youth festival called Project 19 was held last month to raise awareness about sexual health and HIV in the country. According to the Post, the festival was "unique" because it invited "bashful attendees to talk about pleasure" -- a rare move in the country, where talking about sex "can be an uphill task in India's traditional and patriarchal society." Volunteers also led a game in which they asked visitors to describe their first impression of the female condom. "We tell the sex workers to have fun with the female condom," Kavita Potturi, national program manager with Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust, said, adding, "We tell them, 'You spend money on makeup, jewelry, jasmine flowers for your hair. This female condom is another ornament for you.'"
According to the Post, 15 years after launching a national HIV/AIDS campaign, the Indian government is "still confronting the basic challenge of getting people to even utter the word 'condom.'" One advertisement campaign, called "Say Condom Freely," is addressing the issue by urging people to talk about the condom without fear of stigma (Lakshmi, Washington Post, 3/2).