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Abstract
Prayers, god and sex
S. Mohan
Issues: Unknown to many, high-risk sex appears to be a big-time activity at an annual religious fair in Uttaranchal, Northern India.
Description: Risky games endangering people’s lives are played at the little-known Kaliyar Sareef fair in Kaliyar village near Roorkee. Tens of thousands of people visit the fair, of whom nearly 50 per cent are said to be eunuchs and MSM, a core group that the national AIDS control program seeks to work with.
I visited the fair to write an article about the alleged high-risk activity and interviewed several visitors, hawkers and members of a community-based organization of MSM to get relevant information. Finally, an article titled ‘Prayers, God and Sex’ was published in AIDS BUZZ, New Delhi, Jan 2006. Interviewing eunuchs, MSM and entire families on intimate issues of sexuality (with questions such as “do you come here for sex, how many partners a day, do you see people soliciting partners?”) is tricky and requires tremendous skill. “Sex sold by eunuchs and MSM appears to be a big-time activity outside the Saabir Paq shrine,” the article said, quoting various sources (some with changed names) that helped piece up this information. It drew attention to the fact that over 100,000 eunuchs and MSM visited the fair. 100 of them responded to a survey during which 72 admitted coming to the fair for sex work and 78 said their last sex act was unsafe receptive anal sex. There was not a word about safe sex at the sprawling religious fair. The article won the Ramnath Goenka award for excellence in journalism 2007.
Lessons learned: It is possible to highlight genuine, sensitive issues through sensitive reportage in the media.
Next steps: The article pointed out the need to talk about HIV and condoms to people at the fair and suggested some ways of doing this.
AIDS 2008 - XVII International AIDS Conference
Abstract no.
TUPE0751
Suggested Citation
" S. Mohan
Prayers, god and sex.
:
AIDS 2008 - XVII International AIDS Conference:
Abstract no.
TUPE0751"
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