Sex, Money and Power In India

March 13, 2006

By SARITHA RAI/ BANGALORE

Posted Sunday, Mar. 12, 2006

For women in developing countries, economic opportunity and sexual

independence are supposed to go hand in hand. So why has India--the

world's second fastest growing economy, after China--been unable to

control the spread of its HIV/AIDS cases, which have ballooned to 5

million, more than in any other nation? The answer, says Suneeta

Krishnan, 35, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San

Francisco, is that in India, " economic freedom stops at the bedroom

door. "

As part of a four-year study funded by the U.S. National Institutes

of Health, and an additional five years of funding through the

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers,

Krishnan and her co-workers have been going door to door in

Bangalore, interviewing 750 low-wage married women ages 16 to 25.

What they've discovered is that in that group, employment and the

extra income it provides, rather than empowering women, puts them at

greater risk of physical violence and contracting HIV.

Social roles are strongly defined in Indian society, says Krishnan,

and people tend not to talk about sex. The social pressure remains

intense for men to prove their masculinity and women their

fertility. Indian women may be making more decisions about household

buying or their children's education, but they remain sexually

submissive, still marry early (average age: 17) and tend to defer to

men about whether a condom will be used.

Women who marry later, says Krishnan, have more control over their

sexual health and are far less likely to contract HIV. She believes

that better access to higher education and higher-strata jobs will

not only raise women's status but protect their health.

From the Mar. 20, 2006 issue of TIME magazine

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