How Safe Masti's providing men a safe, non judgmental space for obtaining information on HIV/AIDS

In India, talking about sex and sexuality is considered taboo, and there is virtually no discussion about these subjects in homes or institutions. While HIV AIDS continues to spread, conversations about awareness have reduced at an alarming rate over the past few years. Safe Masti’s aim is to to change this—to ignite conversations around safe sex, HIV and regular testing. A multimedia program supported by the Elton John AIDS Foundation, it is a digital awareness and behavioural change campaign targeting 18 to 30-year-old men who have sex with men (MSMs) across six key cities in India. The platform is sans judgement —‘It’s not the ‘who’ but the ‘how’ that we focus on’ is their tagline.

Shivraj Parshad, Project Lead of Safe Masti told Firstpost, “Our campaign is a judgement-free, safe space, reassuring our target (MSMs between 18 and 29) that they should be absolutely comfortable in their skin, celebrate their lives, access pleasure freely, and most importantly, be safe and be healthy by doing something as simple as getting tested for HIV. Underpinning this is our core philosophy that it is ‘better knowing than not knowing’ so that you can lead a healthy and full life.”

The team hopes to include technology in its approach to give its target audiences judgement-free access to the means to prevent the spread of HIV. Its social media outreach is powered by a mobile-first web platform with a chat/discussion forum, counselor services and a section about frequently asked questions and answers about safe sex, HIV, testing and treatment. There is also an HIV risk calculator, as well as an online shop for buying condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) tablets. The objective is to provide users with confidential, secure access to all the tools and products which will let them be safe.

Sharif Rangnekar, a Senior Advisory Board member, said, “This campaign is already gaining traction; we get calls, our website gets visits, and our Facebook page has received a number of messages. What is heartening is that we seem to have hit a spot which has been missed by most campaigns on safe sex for MSMs so far — the digital space. As we build this up, we are hopeful for getting more partners on board so as to create a larger safe ecosystem that will yield greater awareness, testing without denying people the element of fun which they all enjoy through intimacy, whether it is lust or love.”

The website also has videos  from the ‘Let’s Talk’ campaign by the likes of former Mr Gay World India Anwesh Sahoo, the head of Godrej’s Culture Lab, Parmesh Shahani, and founder of the Gay And Lesbian Vaishnava Association (GALVA), Ankit Bhuptani.

Based on a research conducted by Blue Lotus Advisory, supported by the Elton John AIDS Foundation, it was observed that the incidence of HIV among MSMs is extremely high. Given that the community in India is still hidden, identifying and connecting with them is a huge challenge. The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) estimates that there are only 4,27,000 MSMs in India (in 2013–14), which is just 0.0685 percent of the total male population. The NACO data is based on MSMs it has identified. However, a major chunk of MSMs are never identified. Unlike other high-risk groups like female sex workers (FSWs) or injection drug users (IDUs), there is no public behaviour (such as soliciting customers or procuring drugs) by which one can identify MSMs.

Interestingly, the study also revealed that the usage of smartphones and digital platforms among community members is very high. Their estimates indicate there are more than one million urban young MSMs who use smartphones in India. With the advent of social media and dating apps, it has become even more difficult to reach them, as they no longer visit the traditional cruising spots. Digital platforms allow them to connect with people who they relate to, while maintaining their anonymity.

The survey further found that the prevalence of MSMs with HIV is high in metros. Internet penetration rates are much higher in these cities (as of 2008–10) as compared to rest of the country. This increases their access to dating apps, which has led to an increase in casual sex. UN research backed this and found that the growing use of mobile dating apps by young gay men (10–19 years) is a major factor when it comes to HIV epidemics among teenagers in Asia.

Studies indicate that a greater percentage of gay men are on social media, as these act as virtual community centres. Grindr, PlanetRomeo and Facebook are the top three digital platforms for men to find other men for sex. About 5 percent of PlanetRomeo’s traffic comes from India, translating into roughly a million visits per month on the website. Facebook’s Create Ad tool reveals that more than 2 million Indian males are registered as members of groups theme-focused on homosexuality. Due to the social stigma attached, a number of people use fake Facebook accounts for this aspect of their lives. The users are highly distributed across multiple groups. One of the biggest groups is LGBT India with over 14,000 members. Other big players include 1man.in, gaydia.in and Ohmojo.com. Even classifieds like Craigslist.in or locanto.in are used for hook-ups.

While Safe Masti is just about a month old and the impact is still a work-in-progress matrix, the team is going out into the market to crowdsource great personal narratives and content from across the spectrum, to influence its target audience — to go from engaging with the content to actually getting the right counsel, and getting themselves tested.

To know more, look up Safe Masti’s website  or follow them on Facebook , Twitter  and Instagram .