Promoting Gender Equity and Spousal Communication as a Strategy to Change Contraceptive-Related Attitudes and Behavior among Young Men in Rural India

This paper examines the impact of peer led intervention on challenging gender norms among young men. The analysis is based on the operations research (the Horizons program) which covered 1040 young men (18-29 years) from 28 villages from one of the northern states of India. Pre-Post intervention surveys, including measures of attitudes towards gender norms using the Gender Equitable Men (GEM) scale and other key HIV/STI risk outcome were used as evaluation tools. The study demonstrated that there was a significant decrease in supporting inequitable gender norms, there was an increase in condom use with marital and non-marital partners and reported less physical harassment. Majority of men who participated in the study showed considerable improvement in inter-spousal communication on various issues such as STI, HIV prevention and condom use, which clearly highlights the importance of interpersonal communication and reinforcing gender equity and HIV risk reduction messages at the community level.