A majority of women in India are exposed to HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI) because of the behavior of their spouses. Yet few interventions focus on addressing the HIV and STI prevention needs of married women. To fill this gap, ICRW launched an innovative four-year program to engage women and couples in culturally-appropriate, HIV/STI prevention programs based in reproductive health clinics. The program partnered with the University of Connecticut and received financial support from the U.S.-based National Institute of Mental Health.
ICRW and partners first gathered baseline information about the nature of reproductive health care for women through interviews with health care providers and married couples. ICRW then designed and implemented an intervention to deliver high quality women- and couple-centered counseling services to empower women. These services also engaged men in how to reduce their risk of sexually transmitted infections. The results of the intervention suggest major policy and programmatic implications for how women-centered services are delivered through India’s public health system.
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