Key informant interviews were also conducted at baseline and EOP. Eligibility criteria included involvement with policy development, part of health service delivery at district, state, or national level, involvement with sex workers, and/or with DIFFER (especially at EOP). Participants included policymakers, government representatives from the district, state, and national levels with experience in departments ranging from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), Reproductive and Child Health, Department of Women and Child Development, leaders from NGOs working with sex workers in Mysore, lawyers who work as advocates for sex workers and sex worker leaders. Participants were purposively sampled to ensure representation of community leaders and different partners at local, state, and national levels. Interviews were conducted either in person, and were audio recorded and transcribed into English, or via phone, in which case extensive notes were taken during and immediately after the conversation. Key Informant interviews focused on the feasibility, appropriateness, and sustainability of the interventions. Most key informants were met individually, however a few group discussions took place. Consent was obtained prior to the discussions. Interviews were conducted by Ashodaya staff and researchers. Detailed notes were taken immediately following the interviews. Interview notes were then manually coded for emergent themes.
During game development, we conducted focus groups with parents, teachers, and students at the schools. Our aim was to understand what adolescents already knew about reproductive health and sexuality, what they wanted to know, and how teachers and parents preferred broaching the topic. A full list of questions asked in focus groups is included in Supplementary File 1. All interviews were conducted in Kannada. Focus groups were held at the JSS Medical School (a constituent college of JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research) in Mysore India in December 2016. Separate sessions (with ten participants each) were held with adolescent females, adolescent males, mothers, fathers, female teachers, and male teachers. During each session, we play-tested two different game prototypes to determine the feasibility of a game approach and if the participants were comfortable using one to learn about sensitive topics. All sessions were video and audio recorded to ensure accurate transcription and translation.
Kannada Phone Sex Recorded
Given that the students in the focus groups reported having limited access to computer and phone technology we determined that the best way to deliver the game was via tablets that could be taken into the schools. We ensured that all of the written text in the game was also spoken in English or the local language by the in-game narrator so students with a range of literacies would be able to understand. Headphones provided players with the relative privacy needed to be able to engage with sensitive material. The design metaphor for the game is a player walking through the valley of life, encountering 5 milestones: Become an Adult, Finish Schooling, Meet a Future Spouse, Get Married, Have Children. At each milestone, players unlock a mini-game that teaches them about puberty, intercourse, reproduction, and conception, respectively. At the beginning of each mini-game, players are asked to indicate the age at which they hope to reach the milestone and the main influencers on their decisions regarding the milestone. For example, a player could indicate that she wants to be 22 when she has her first child and that her mother and teacher are the most important influences on this decision. A video of gameplay and more information about the project are available at the game website. The game was built in Unity version 5.5.
All in-game data was stored, including self-reported gender and age, age at which students desired to achieve each milestone, and time to complete mini-games. Upon completing the game, students were given a pencil-and-paper questionnaire in which they again reported demographic characteristics (age, gender, family structure), their desired number of children, and their perceptions of the game and how much they had learned. To validate the data collected in the game, it was compared with that collected in the questionnaires. Student gender was recorded on both the questionnaire and tablet by researchers prior to starting the game, to determine whether students played the game with avatars of a different gender.
Exposure to media, Internet, and cellphone: Across the board, rural and urban students had some access to cell phones. They had played games on phones and been exposed to the internet. Parents and teachers had concerns that students were obtaining sexual health information that was either skewed or beyond their level of understanding through media (TV/ads) and the internet.
b) To have a significant impact, the game should be distributed to many more students than we were able to reach in the pilot. This is a challenge because much of the target population does not have access to a cellphone, tablet, or computer on which to play. We plan to partner with organizations in and outside of India who already have networks in place to achieve wider distribution. This will involve more focus groups to ensure that we maintain buy-in from all stakeholders. Ideally we would be able to demonstrate efficacy to governments and school administrators so that they would seek to distribute the game themselves.
Authorities could also arrest and detain individuals under several other laws. In a February 11 report, HRW stated, "[S]tate police, jail officials, and other authorities have committed a range of human rights violations, including arbitrary arrest and detention.... " HRW called for the repeal of the "unlawful provisions of counterterrorism laws, including overly broad definitions of terrorism, expanded police powers of search and seizure, the presumption of guilt under certain circumstances, and draconian precharge detention periods." The ACHR stated in its April report, Torture in India 2010, "There are no [legal] safeguards to ensure that a person taken into custody will have his detention recorded, have prompt access to a lawyer, or have an impartial medical examination upon his arrival at the place of detention or at the time of his release."
The Telegraph Act authorizes the surveillance of communications, including monitoring telephone conversations and intercepting personal mail in cases of public emergency or "in the interest of the public safety or tranquility." The central government and state governments used these surveillance techniques during the year.
Although the Telegraph Act gives police the power to intercept telephone conversations, that evidence is generally inadmissible in court. The UAPA allows use of evidence obtained from intercepted communications in terrorist cases.
On January 8, the central government defended its November 2009 decision to ban prepaid mobile services in Jammu and Kashmir, explaining that terrorists used such services to detonate landmines targeting military convoys in the state. On January 21, the government lifted the ban but placed strict conditions on telecommunications providers for verification of customers for both prepaid and postpaid connections. On June 29, the state government blocked mobile phone and messaging (SMS) services in the Kashmir Valley for one day to prevent further violence there but restored mobile services the next day.
On September 14, Amnesty International urged authorities to carry out an effective investigation into a three-minute video clip, allegedly recorded by one of the security force members, that showed Jammu and Kashmir police and CRPF personnel herding at least four naked youth to a nearby police station.
According to International Telecommunication Union statistics during the year, 6.9 percent of the country's inhabitants used the Internet. Lack of infrastructure limited public access to the Internet, but large segments of the population (706 million) had mobile phones and used SMS to send and receive information.
On November 16, following press accusations, the national comptroller general and auditor reported to parliament that mismanagement in 2007 by Telecommunications Minister Andimuthu Raja in the issuance of radio spectrum licenses to mobile phone companies had led to a notional loss to the government of 1.72 trillion rupees ($38.1 billion). On November 15, Raja resigned his post. The issue paralyzed parliament during the entire winter session as opposition party members forced daily adjournments by shouting slogans and demanding the formation of a special investigatory parliamentary committee. At year's end the CBI was investigating the allegations to determine whether criminal charges should be filed.
The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape. Punishment ranged from prison terms as long as one year, a fine of 19,800 rupees (approximately $450), or both. Official statistics point to rape as the fastest growing crime in the country, even when compared to murder, robbery, and kidnapping. Despite assurances from law enforcement, the NCRB states that a woman is raped in the country every 30 minutes. Since 1971 when rape cases were first recorded officially, the NCRB has registered a 678 percent increase in the crime. According to the NCRB, there were 21,397 rape cases registered in the country in 2009. Law enforcement and legal avenues for rape victims are inadequate, overburdened, and unable to address the issue effectively.
So-called honor killings continued to be a problem, especially in Punjab and Haryana, where as many as 10 percent of all killings were honor killings. Although statistics for honor killings are difficult to verify, on October 10, The Guardian reported police officially recorded 19 honor killings in the northern part of the country between April 19 and June 30. According to the same report, one recent study estimated more than 1,000 honor killings every year, most of them occurring in the northern states of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh. The most common justification for the killings offered by those accused or by their relatives was that the victim married against their family's wishes. During the year a survey conducted by the NCW along with the NGO Shakti Vahini revealed that in 88.9 percent of the cases, the perpetrators of the honor killing were the girl's family members. In 2009 the MHA issued an advisory to all state governments and union territories to review their policies and tackle the problem of such killings. 2ff7e9595c
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