Fostering men's full involvement as collaborative researchers, peer educators, and participants is the core emphasis of this programme. To begin, formative research was conducted with Indian men between the ages of 16 and 24 years on the links between gender and masculinity, sexuality, and health risk. To foster this process, peer leaders from the communities were intensively trained on data collection techniques. These leaders, under the guidance of the researchers, conducted 51 interviews with the young men and 4 focus group discussions were conducted with NGO leaders, political and religious leaders, and young women. (In short, the predominant view of masculinity and men's roles in sexual and romantic relationships espoused by the young men was found to be one of entitlement and dominance.)

Peer leaders, who were mainly drawn from the group that participated in the formative research, took part in a 2-week training programme to strengthen their gender and HIV-related knowledge and facilitation skills. They then recruited 4 groups of local young men (30 to 35 in each group) from vocational training groups; political, cultural, and religious youth groups; youth on the street; and through a network of the peer leaders' friends. The 126 participants first took part in an intensive week of group educational activities, facilitated by both peer leaders and adult gender specialists; this process was followed by 2- to 3-hour sessions every week, led by peer leaders only, for a duration of 6 months. The group exercises were based on participatory methods of learning with extensive use of role-plays, discussions, and debates. Among the main themes covered in the sessions were HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) risk and prevention, including fidelity in relationships and condom use negotiation; partner, family, and community violence; gender and sexuality; and reproductive health.

In some sites, group education activities were (and are) combined with a community-based and gender-focused social marketing "lifestyle" campaign; young men actively participated in the development and implementation of the campaign. With a tag line of "soch sahi mard vahi" ("Real men have the right attitude"), the campaign consists of street plays, posters, pamphlets, banners, and a service and information booth.

Gender, HIV/AIDS, Reproductive Health.

According to National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), India accounts for the second largest population of people living with HIV/AIDS (5.1 million); NACO estimates that almost half of new HIV infections occur in young men below age 30. One factor thought to influence young men's HIV risk in India is early socialisation about masculinity. Organisers claim that young men in India mature and develop in a male-dominated context, with little contact with female peers and virtually no sex education.

Yari-dosti seems to have been successful in shifting the young men's attitudes and behaviours. For example, participants moved from denying that gender norms mattered to challenging these norms and behaviours. The sessions were the first opportunity many of them had had to discuss these issues openly; they particularly liked having the chance to communicate about these issues with other men. Also, compared to baseline, intervention participants decreased their support for inequitable gender norms and reported less sexual harassment, and there were trends toward less risky behaviours (e.g., condom use at last sex with any sexual partner increased among the participants from 46% to 58%).

Yari-dosti was adapted from "Program H", the result of an earlier collaboration between the Horizons Program and the Brazilian NGO Instituto PROMUNDO; exposure to Program H was found to lead to more gender-equitable attitudes and behaviours among young men, as well as increased condom use and decreased reported STI symptoms.