Indian Sex Museum Teaches Prostitutes Safe Sex

The only India's sex museum in Mumbai, the biggest country's city, opens its doors for hundreds of prostitutes as well as their clients to give them a chance to learn more about HIV from its graphic exhibits rather than respectable lectures on safer sex.

The one-room exhibition of nude statues, illustrations and models of human anatomy is called Antarang („intimate“ in hindi). The exhibition is located just in the right place - near red light district in Mumbai. This is the only sex museum in India - the exhibition's management claims.

Indian sex museum greets its visitors with a „lingam“ -(a phallic symbol which is worshipped as one of the representations of Shiva) and Kamasutra verses. As well there are wooden models showing sexual intercourse and child birth and descriptions of some sexually transmitted diseases.

M.G Vallecha, the chief of the museum considers a sex museum to be one of the best places to learn more about sex and issues related to it.

Antarang is run by state government which combats HIV and AIDS in India where circa 5.7 million people live with HIV. This figure makes India a country with the largerst number of people infected with HIV, according to UN figures. What is more this number is likely to become four times bigger by 2010 as many Indians still underestimate the necessity of discussing safer sex opently.

To prevent this increase authorities from all over the country try all possible ways to teach people safer sex without staid lectures. These are street plays, so called „condom parties“ and many other entertaing events intended to spread awarness of sexually transmitted diseases and ways of their prevention.

Antarang was opened in 2003 and immediately became popular among prostitutes and their clients who were taken there by health workers. Health volunteers comprise a great part of the museum's thousands of visitors every year, the museum's chief said. At first they are shy, but step by step they discover many new things they did not know about, though they thought they knew all about sex and everything related to it. Then they bring to the museum hundreds of prostitutes together with their clients.

Indian prostitution is quite peculiar. Often prostitutes there act as mistresses for one regular client. Sometimes a prostitute and her client develope close relationships and visit sex museum together.

Many of prostitutes and other sex workers say the museum considerably changed their lives by giving them information on safe sex and its necessity. Once they visit the museum they do not have sex with clients without a condom.

Tourists rarely visit the museum as most of them do not want to be seen in red light district. Sometimes school and college students visit Antarang, however the museum's management wants more members of mainstream society.

Indian authorities plan to open one more sex museum in a nothern suburb. The museum will be located out of the red district to attract wider audience.