New Delhi - Alcohol consumption in India is among the highest in South Asia, raising the potential of increased sexual risk taking and the subsequent spread of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV.
The Second International Conference on Alcohol and HIV which concluded here today has called for multilevel community based approaches for effectively combating pervasive alcohol use and the resulting HIV transmission. A special emphasis of the conference was the role of gender norms. The researchers emphasised the need to produce greater gender equality and to shift norms that place aggression, violence and sexual exploitation within the masculine domain and are aggravated under the influence of alcohol.
Ongoing research in different countries suggests that women's risk of gender-based and sexual violence is also increased by their partner's alcohol consumption. Therefore, without addressing gender, efforts to reduce alcohol-related sexual-risk behaviour might only be partly successful. "Gender is missing from many alcohol related as well as HIV related interventions. Interventions of any kind in the development sector must be conscientious of gender. Failure to do so may reinforce existing discrimination against women and girls," says Dr Ravi Verma, Regional Director, International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).
International researchers present at the Conference recognized that a "single sector" approach alone will not be effective in combating either pervasive alcohol use or HIV transmission. Sensitive community-based, community-controlled and evaluated approaches to mediating alcohol use and its relationship with unprotected sex should be undertaken in India with communities, including men, women, and families affected by alcohol, community organizations, distributors, media and providers.
The conference which was organised by International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), in partnership with Public Health Foundation of India, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and The Institute for Community Research brought together program specialists and researchers from India and neighbouring South Asian countries as well as U.S. researchers working in India. The outcomes were the guidelines for improved alcohol-related HIV risk reduction strategies appropriate for India and the region and an intervention research agenda for future work in the field.
Some of the eminent researchers and subject experts included: Dr. Ravi Verma Regional Director - International Center for Research on Women, Dr. Kendall Bryant, Director, Alcohol and HIV/AIDS Research, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Dr. Jean J. Schensul, Founding Director, Institute for Community Research and Dr. K S Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India.
The revelations of the studies presented by the key researchers prove that alcohol plays a direct and indirect role in promoting situations and decisions leading to unprotected sex with multiple partners in unsafe situations both in the general population and in vulnerable populations including mobile workers, and female sex workers, and those infected with HIV. Venues where alcohol is sold and consumed including wine shops, addas and bars and restaurants clearly influence, endorse, support and enable risky sexual behavior.
The studies illustrate, the stressful life circumstances that underlie both alcohol consumption and its consequences for HIV and other health problems providing reasons for why all must be addressed to have a long term effect on HIV prevalence. They show that such approaches can be, feasible and acceptable, that they have antecedents in India and are required to constrain and control the AIDS epidemic wherever vulnerable individuals and groups are at risk.
