AIDSImpact.com:: - Santa Fe, USA 2011

Abstract #22 - Increasing condom accessibility in rural areas of India through condom social marketing
Authors: Presenting Author: Mr Gaurav Jain - HLFPPT
Additional Authors:
Aim: To increase accessibility of condoms in rural India
Method / Issue: Issue With a population of around 1.2 billion, India is the world’s second most populous country. At an annual growth rate of 1.5%, India’s population is projected to surpass China’s by 2025. Being a predominantly agrarian economy, a high percentage (72%) of the population resides in rural areas where the healthcare delivery system is relatively weak. Historically, the availability of condom in rural areas has been low. 38% of the total condom sales come from rural India (even though it represents 72% of the population.) For several years, condom distribution programmes in India have focused on urban areas – and assumed that the primary health care systems will take care of rural areas. Accessibility, availability and visibility of condoms in rural India have therefore been a big issue. Project To improve distribution and demand of condoms, the Government of India’s National AIDS Control Organization launched a targeted condom social marketing programme. The salient features of the programme are as follows: 1.370 high fertility/high prevalence districts have been identified out of a total of 620 districts. These 370 districts cover 77% of the total population. The districts were selected on the basis of potential impact – and these include all high-prevalence or high-fertility districts in the country. 2.Eight Social Marketing Organization have been contracted to implement the condom social marketing programme. 3.The programme is governed by a unique performance based contracting where remuneration of the implementing agencies is based on their achievement of specific, quantified programme gols. These include rural sales, expansion into non-traditional (i.e., non-chemist) condom outlets, mid-media contacts, etc. 4.Agencies are given the specific nos of villages to be covered during Programme period 5.Specific deliverables for opening new condom stocking outlets have been given to ensure the coverage expansion. 6.To ensure the sustainability of rural outlets, it was made mandatory to do at least three productive visit per outlet in a year. 7.Rural focused mid media activities were developed to enhance the demand for condoms. 8.A technical support group has been set up by NACO to do periodic review of programme, provide hand holding in the field and suggest corrective measures
Results / Comments: A-Results 1.Agencies have created access of condoms at 323,609 rural outlets, selling around 127 million condoms in 7 months. 2.Total outlet covered so far is 546,357 recording a total condom sale of 254 million condoms 3.Agencies haves created .2 million new condom stocking outlets. B-Research 1.AS per Condom Promotion Impact Survey, conducted by an independent agency, time taken to obtain a condom from nearest source has reduced from 30 minutes to 23 minutes in rural within 1 year. 2.As per AC Nielsen retail audit 2010, the rural condom market hag grown by 8% in 2010 over the same period last year. Lesson learned 1.Expansion into rural areas requires the right distribution infrastructure as well as the right systems and focus in the field force to increase rural performance. 2.Sustainability of new outlets in rural areas requires careful selection of outlets, ensuring that the right quantities are sold in, a strong focus is made by the sales team in ensuring repeat purchases and driving demand generation activities to generate self-sustaining demand. 3.High distribution cost need to be offset by innovative distribution models (e.g., use of public transportation, use of combined mid-media-cum-distribution vans, etc.)
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