Female condoms for Indian sex workers

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1.5 mn female condoms for Indian sex workers

9 Sep 2008, 1321 hrs IST,IANS

NEW DELHI: About 1.5 million female condoms will be social-marketed

to sex workers in four states this year as India, with over 2.5

million HIV/AIDS patients, tries to empower women in its fight

against the disease.

The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) will focus on Tamil

Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh with this

programme.

Sujatha Rao, director general, NACO, said a pilot project introducing

female condoms to sex workers in 2007 has been a big success, and

hence it was being scaled up about three- fold.

Hindustan Latex Ltd (HLL) is manufacturing the female condom for the

Indian market through a technology transfer from Female Health

Company, London.

The condom - the new generation of the product is known as FC2 - will

be social-marketed to sex workers through NACO's 200 partner NGOs,

which run targeted intervention sites for sex workers.

" The product will have 100 per cent coverage in the four states and

is expected to benefit a population of 200,000 sex workers, " Kavitha

Potturi of HLFPPT, the non-profit wing of HLL, said.

Women in sex work form a core population for the HIV prevention

programme in India. Unprotected sex accounts for over 86 percent of

HIV infections in the country.

The female condom is the only woman-controlled device currently

available to prevent HIV transmission in India. It provides

protection against unintended pregnancy as well as sexually

transmitted diseases.

Female Health Company, which produces the female condom used

worldwide, says cost has been a major barrier in making it widely

available to women at risk. FC2, the new product, has helped bring

down costs.

For the first time, FC2 is being manufactured in India by HLL at its

plant in Kochi, bringing the per piece cost down to Rs.23 from Rs.45 -

the price of the imported product.

Under the social marketing programme, sex workers will now buy the

female condom for Rs.3 instead of the Rs.5 they spent on it last

year.

Rao said the programme will be scaled up further as demand

increases. " The female condom is still a new product, not so easy to

use. The demand for it has to be generated, " she said.

The female condom aims to cover gaps in condom use by putting more

control in women's hands. Women who used the product in the pilot

last year said it gives them more power. Many said it helped reduce

sexually transmitted infections.

Among the six states where the pilot project was conducted, it was

most successful in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West

Bengal, the first three being high HIV prevalence states.

Sex workers say although condom use with clients has increased in

recent years, there is still the odd client who refuses to use one.

Also, condom use is low with regular partners and husbands.

In Madurai, a sex worker in her mid-20s said insisting that husbands

use condoms instigates violence and distrust. " Men ask, 'Why are you

asking me to use a condom? Am I having an extramarital relationship?

Or are you having one?' "

Many of the product's 'champions' are young women who say the female

condom has come to their rescue in ensuring safety. Partner approval

has been critical in making it possible for them to use it, women

say.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/15_mn_female_condoms_for_sex_

workers/articleshow/3462451.cms