Museum in India tackles HIV/AIDS

A municipality in western India is using a sex museum to educate people about HIV/AIDS and safe sex.

The Antarang museum in Mumbai uses excerpts from India's ancient books, including the Kama Sutra and Kumarsambhabam, to describe the sexual relationship between men and women. Paintings and sculpture depict the basics of love, reproduction and HIV/AIDS. Exhibits also illustrate condom use and safe sex, and discuss the dangers of unprotected sex, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in India and its social stigma.

An estimated 5.13 million people in India are infected with HIV, the highest number of infections in the world after South Africa (CMAJ 2004;171:1337-8). The southern states, where Mumbai is located, account for 30% of India's population but 75% of HIV-1 cases.

The museum is a collaborative venture by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society. When it opened in 2002, it attracted some 25 000 visitors annually. Now, the numbers have tapered off, largely due to a lack of publicity and the social stigma surrounding HIV/AID in India. Precise attendance figures are not available.

Nonetheless, the museum is effective, maintains Swapan Jana, secretary of society for Social Pharmacology India, a non-governmental organization working on HIV/AIDS education and prevention. “Sex education provided by the museum has really helped save lives of people,” he says.

If Antarang's operators maintain the museum and pitch it toward young people, it may be more successful than traditional approaches to combating HIV/ AIDS, he adds.

“In India, approaches carried out with posters, leaflets, free condoms, auto-disposable syringes and television publicity seem to have very limited impact in combating HIV/AIDS, because most of them couldn't attract the common people,” says Jana. “Antarang is an attractive approach [and] it should work properly, reaching the target population.” — Manjulika Das, Kolkata, India