Rights and Shame in a Feminising Epidemic: Barriers to Effective Peer Education in a South Delhi Slum Community

Abstract

This paper represents findings from a qualitative study into the use of peer education as a strategy for addressing the particular susceptibility of women to HIV/AIDS. Social constructions of gender that afford women a lower social status than men, heighten their vulnerability to the virus, by lessening both access to health information and services, as well as their ability to negotiate protective behaviours, such as condom use. As such, previous studies have identified the importance of integrating gender theory and analysis into peer educator training and activities, as well as addressing the complexities of communicating about sex and sexuality in cultural contexts where such subjects are often taboo. India is one such country in which women are traditionally afforded a relatively poor status, and discussion relating to sex and sexuality is frowned upon. This paper therefore seeks to ascertain whether female adolescent peer educators working in a South Delhi Slum, Tigri, under local NGO, asha, are receiving appropriate exposure and skills training of this type, and what the socio-cultural specific barriers to doing so may be.