HEALTH-NEPAL: No Sniggers on Condom Day

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

KATHMANDU, Oct 31 2004 (IPS) - There were no sniggers at the National Condom Day rally in this Himalayan capital – not even when someone suggested that the 172 year-old Bhimsen tower stretching 50 meters into the clear blue mountain skies was ideal for a giant condom display.

”Condoms are being taken seriously in Nepal as awareness grows among the people of the serious threat from HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs),” said Bijay Dahal who heads the communication and humanitarian values department of the Nepal Red Cross Society, the driving force behind Saturday’s Condom Day rally – now in its 10th year.

The rally, in which uniformed schoolchildren as well as commercial sex workers participated, wound itself from the starting point at the base of the Bhimsen tower through the old quarters of the picturesque capital with condoms and literature being distributed and accepted along the way, all in great solemnity.

Indeed, when Karin Hakansson-Furga, representative of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, addressed the rally she found it necessary to remind the motley crowd that after all life is also about ”fun, feeling and excitement” and that the rubber was ”fun to use along with the responsibility.”

Dahal told IPS that it took ten years of consistent effort, and with the help of several non-government organisations (NGOs) to get Nepalese, a conservative lot, to begin to regard condoms as part of their daily existence rather than as a taboo subject not to be discussed.

”Not long ago every time a condom advertisement would appear on television people would reach for their remotes,” he said.

The job is far from done in Nepal, a landlocked country with 25 million people most of whom live in remote mountain hamlets and with 53 percent of the population struggling to address various socio-economic problems.

Yet, the urbanised parts of Nepal seem to have made tremendous headway when it comes to ‘mainstreaming’ condoms especially when compared to its larger and equally conservative neighbours in South Asia including Pakistan and India.

Earlier this year, government auditors in India reported the near complete failure of the government’s condom promotion programme in that country in spite of the millions of dollars poured into it over a decade.

According to Dahal, celebrating Condom Day has provided the continual platform necessary to address issues in the promotion of condom use especially as a simple, cost- effective barrier to unwanted pregnancies, STDs and the looming threat of HIV/AIDs.

But the rally too had its jitters when a truce between Maoists rebels and the Nepalese government came to an end on Saturday. The procession carts were festooned with full- blown condoms and every time one of them burst it startled the well-armed police escort.

The Maoist rebels have been fighting for a communist republic in Nepal since 1996 and the uprising has already claimed more than 10,000 lives.

”Our biggest achievement has been the introduction of reproductive health and HIV/ AIDS related topics as part of the middle-school curriculum,” asserted Dahal.

Said Sharmila Desemare, a 15-year-old schoolgirl in pigtails from the Sri Padma High school in Bhaktapur town and a rally participant: ”We are better off for the knowledge that is being imparted to us at school.”

A confident Desamare said schoolchildren had a definite role to play in society in promoting condom use as a preventive against HIV/AIDS and as a contraceptive.

According to a Red Cross youth worker, teenagers in rapidly transforming Nepal had often more progressive ideas than their teachers or parents and were aware that they had a greater stake in understanding the dangers of HIV/AIDS or other sexually transmitted diseases than the older generation.

Indeed, in Nepal the message of HIV/AIDS and the power of the rubber sheath in fighting it is being carried across to society by the most unlikely people, including commercial sex workers whose profession is yet to find legal acceptance in the kingdom.

Despite the illegality of commercial sex, according to volunteers with major NGOs like the General Welfare Pratishtan and the Centre for Development and Population Activities (CDPA), it is fairly widespread in Kathmandu – a major international tourist destination.

Although there are no clear figures of the actual numbers involved in the profession, it is estimated that anywhere up to 10,000 women may be engaged in sex work in Kathmandu ranging from street-walkers, to barmaids and sophisticated escorts found in the luxury and mid-luxury hotels.

On reason why the actual numbers cannot be easily ascertained and why volunteers find it difficult to reach those involved in sex work and address their problems is because of the absence of red-light districts in the capital. Many of these sex workers operate underground and intermingle with the general population.

But this peculiarity has allowed sex-workers to take on the job of promoting condom use more effectively in society, said Dahal.

Take the case of Manmaya (not her real name) who has been a commercial sex worker for three years now. She is also a volunteer for the CDPA and shares her knowledge of HIV/AIDS and condom use with those she comes into contact with – regardless of whether they are clients, neighbours or new entrants to the profession.

She teaches new sex workers the art of negotiating condom use, which can be tricky since clients can feel cheated and beleive that ”without condoms they are being denied maxium satisfaction.”

But the explicit and sometimes lurid charts and diagrams provided by the NGOs that Manmaya keeps handy are enough to do the trick. ”Most of the time refusal to use condoms is simply the result of ignorance,” she said.

”Over the last three years I have seen a major change in the attitude of clients and they are now definitely more ready to use condoms before engaging in sex and often keep them handy in their pockets.”