TITLE:
Multiple Sexual Partners and Vulnerability to HIV: A Study of Patterns of Sexual Behaviour in the Slum Population of India
AUTHORS:
Pravin K. Jha, Damodar Sahu, K. Srikanth Reddy, Padum Narayan, Arvind Pandey
KEYWORDS:
Slum, Sexual Partners, Transition Probability
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of AIDS,
Vol.4 No.4,
November
14,
2014
ABSTRACT: Globally, research indicates that
monogamous married women living in slums are at heightened risk of HIV men’s
risky sexual behaviour. Hence, to reduce the risk of HIV transmission, there is
need to understand the number, nature and variation in transition of sexual
partners of men in living in slums. This paper uses India’s National Family
Health Survey-3 data to estimate the variation in the type of sexual partners
among sexually active men age 15 - 54 with more than one sexual partner in last
12 months prior to the survey in eight slumsof
India. Among sexually active men, 1.3 percent reported having more than one
sexual partner in the last 12 months prior to the survey. Men who are more
likely to have two or more partners are those who are young, especially below
age 25 years, never married, educated up to 5 years, and from middle class.
There is a higher increase in the probability of sex with spouse from second
last to the last sexual partner in non-slum areas than slum areas. However, in
case of transition from other friends/relatives and female sex workers to
spousal partners, there is a major decline in probability among non-slum men
than slum men. These transitions are extremely important from the perspective
of curbing the spread of HIV epidemic, especially in situations where women
lack control over their own sexuality and seldom use condom in marital sex.
Therefore, strategies focused in slums should either consider reducing men’s
risky sexual behaviour or build capacities of women to negotiate safe sex in
marital relationships or consider a combination of both.