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Impact Data - Balbir Pasha HIV/AIDS Campaign

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Date
Practices
Sales of condoms in the red light district tripled after the launch of the campaign.
Attitudes
  • The proportion of the audience addressed by the campaign that has sex with commercial sex workers (CSWs) that feels at high-risk for HIV in unprotected sex with a non-commercial partner increased from 17% to 43%.
  • The percentage of those who believed that using condoms all the time reduces HIV/AIDS risk considerably increased from 80% to 86%.
  • The proportion of those who realised that using condoms half the time did not reduce risk at all increased from 43% to 53%.
  • Respondents showed an increase in risk perception regarding healthy looking and more expensive CSWs and an increase in claims of condom use with CSWs.
Access
Among 1,500 people surveyed:
  • One quarter recalled the Balbir Pasha campaign spontaneously, 62% recalled it after hearing "HIV/AIDS", and 90% remembered it after hearing "Balbir Pasha".
  • Calls to PSI's Saadhan HIV/AIDS hotline increased 250% and the types of queries changed from superficial to more substantive.
  • More than a quarter of the participants knew the name of the hotline and over 75% believed that calling it would provide accurate and complete information.

In an article in The Times of India, Varda Pendse, a working woman and mother, said of the campaign, "It made us sit up and take note of AIDS. It spoke to people in a language they understand. We cannot have a westernized campaign to spread awareness among the masses."
Source
USAID HIV/AIDS E-Newsletter--October 20, 2003; and "Balbir Pasha: HIV/AIDS Campaign is the Talk of Mumbai" [PDF].