London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

An hour-long ‘protocol workshop’ to discuss the Samata and Samvedana Plus analysis plans with Tara Beatie and Lucy Platt, who are leading the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine support for the projects. These are both cluster-randomised controlled trials in India. Co-investigators from India will join by Skype.

SAMATA: Supporting adolescent girls to stay in school, reduce child marriage and prevent entry into sex work

Background. Lower caste adolescent girls living in rural northern Karnataka, south India are at increased risk of school drop-out, child marriage, and entry into sex-work, which enhances their vulnerability to HIV, early pregnancy and adverse maternal and child health outcomes.

The Samata intervention is a comprehensive, multi-level intervention designed to address these structural drivers of HIV risk and vulnerability. Samata works with key stakeholders (lower caste adolescent girls and their families; adolescent boys; village communities; schools; policy makers), to change social norms regarding gender, child marriage and girls’ education, and to link lower caste families to government schemes that provide scholarships, bicycles and other incentives to support girls’ retention in school. 

SAMVEDANA PLUS: Reducing violence and increasing condom use in the intimate partnerships of female sex workers

Background: Female sex workers are at increased risk of HIV and STIs compared to women in the general population, and frequently experience violence in their working and domestic lives from a variety of perpetrators, which can enhance this risk.

While progress has been made in addressing violence by police and clients, little work has been done to understand and prevent violence by intimate partners (IPs) among sex worker populations. Samvedana Plus is a multi-level intervention programme that works with sex workers, their IPs, the sex worker community, and the general population to address intimate partner violence.