Research and Intervention in Sexual Health: Theory to Action (RISHTA)
A Council program in India has worked to empower local communities and health systems to play a role in preventing HIV transmission among married men and women.
Dr. Subhash Prajapati stands in front of his clinic in the Mankhurd slums of Mumbai. Local medical practitioners have been trained as part of the RISHTA project to manage STIs by diagnosing, treating, and counseling patients (more). Photo: RISHTA
Research and Intervention in Sexual Health: Theory to Action (RISHTA; an acronym meaning ‘‘relationship’’ in Hindi and Urdu) was funded from 2002 to 2007 by the US National Institutes of Health and was a collaboration of the Center for International Community Health Studies (CICHS) at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, the Institute for Community Research (ICR), and the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS).
The project focused on married men 21–40 years old in three economically marginal areas (known in India as ‘‘slum communities’’) in Mumbai. The focus on this age range and marital status was the result of preliminary research that indicated most men in these communities became sexually active at or just before the onset of marriage and that this age range best covers those men involved in sexually risky activities outside of marriage.
A range of activities at the community level and provider levels were carried out under the project. Community members' awareness of STIs and HIV was raised, and local medical practitioners were trained to diagnose and treat STIs. The project data indicate a drop in the incidence of gonorrhoea—one of the STIs measured—from 3.9 percent to 1.7 percent and a drop in the practice of extramarital relationships from 12.9 percent to 2.9 percent.
The second phase of the project, currently in progress, is on preventing transmission of STIs and HIV among married women. It is a culturally appropriate, theory-driven, health facility–based intervention that provides enhanced women’s health services and interventions with couples to promote primary prevention of HIV and other STIs among married women ages 18–40 who live in an urban poor community in Mumbai.
Related project: Reducing HIV Among At-risk Wives in India (RHANI Wives Project)
A methodology for building culture and gender norms into intervention: An example from Mumbai, India (abstract)
Kostick,Kristin M.; Schensul,Stephen L.; Singh,Rajendra; Pelto,Pertti J.; Saggurti,Niranjan
Social Science and Medicine 72(10): 1630-1638
Publication date: 2011
The interrelationship of men's self-reports of sexual risk behavior and symptoms and laboratory-confirmed STI-status in India (abstract)
Saggurti,Niranjan; Schensul,Stephen L.; Verma,Ravi K.
AIDS Care 23(2): 163-170
Publication date: 2011
Alcohol use, sexual risk behavior and STIs among married men in Mumbai, India (abstract)
Saggurti,Niranjan; Schensul,Stephen L.; Singh,Rajendra
AIDS and Behavior 14(suppl 1): 40-47
Publication date: 2010
Community-level HIV/STI interventions and their impact on alcohol use in urban poor populations in India (abstract)
Schensul,Stephen L.; Saggurti,Niranjan; Burleson,Joseph A.; Singh,Rajendra
AIDS and Behavior 14(suppl 1): 158-167
Publication date: 2010
Sexual health, marital sex, and sexual risk in urban poor communities in India (abstract)
Bojko,Martha J.; Schensul,Stephen L.; Singh,Rajendra; Burleson,Joseph A.; Moonzwe,Lwendo S.; Saggurti,Niranjan
Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health 22(suppl 3): 144-150
Publication date: 2010
Treatment seeking, vaginal discharge and psychosocial distress among women in urban Mumbai (abstract)
Kostick,Kristin M.; Schensul,Stephen L.; Jadhav,Kalpita; Singh,Rajendra; Bavadekar,Amruta; Saggurti,Niranjan
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 34(3): 529-547
Publication date: 2010
Migration, mobility and sexual risk behavior in Mumbai, India: Mobile men with non-residential wife show increased risk (abstract)
Saggurti,Niranjan; Schensul,Stephen L.; Verma,Ravi K.
AIDS and Behavior 13(5): 921-927
Publication date: 2009
Multilevel perspectives on community intervention: An example from an Indo-US HIV prevention project in Mumbai, India (abstract)
Schensul,Stephen L.; Saggurti,Niranjan; Singh,Rajendra; Verma,Ravi K.; Nastasi,Bonnie K.; Guha Mazumder,Papiya
American Journal of Community Psychology 43(3-4): 277-291
Publication date: 2009
Addressing Gupt Rog: Narrative prevention counselling for STI/HIV prevention--A guide to AYUSH and allopathic practitioners (PDF)
Nastasi,Bonnie K.; Saggurti,Niranjan; Schensul,Stephen L.; Verma,Ravi K.; Gandhi,Meena
Publication date: 2007
Community-based research in India: A case example of international and transdisciplinary collaboration (abstract)
Schensul,Stephen L.; Nastasi,Bonnie K.; Verma,Ravi K.
American Journal of Community Psychology 38(1-2): 95-111
Publication date: 2006
Healing traditions and men's sexual health in Mumbai, India: The realities of practiced medicine in urban poor communities (abstract)
Schensul,Stephen L.; Mekki-Berrada,Abdelwahed; Nastasi,Bonnie K.; Saggurti,Niranjan; Verma,Ravi K.
Social Science and Medicine 62(11): 2774-2785
Publication date: 2006
Project Stats
Location: India (three slum settlements of Mumbai)
Program(s):
HIV and AIDS
Topic(s):
Behavior change
HIV prevention
RTIs/STIs
Duration: 1/2001 - 8/2013
Population Council researchers:
Niranjan Saggurti
Non-Council collaborators:
B.Y.L. Nair Charitable Hospital and Topiwala National Medical College
CORO for Literacy
Institute for Community Research
International Center for Research on Women
National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health
National Institute of Medical Statistics
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Tulane University
University College London
University of Connecticut School of Medicine
University of Laval, Quebec
Donors:
US National Institutes of Health through the University of Connecticut School of Medicine
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