Sexual Risk Behaviour among Migrant Tribals Living in Urban Slums of an Eastern Indian City: Implications on the Spread of HIV

This paper reports the sexual risk behaviour among migrant tribal community living in an eastern Indian city. The age at marriage is very low in this community and 54% of women had first intercourse before the age of 15 years with the mean of 15.8 years and it is 19.5 years for men. Pre and extramarital relations, including multi-partnered sex is prevalent. Safe sexual practices are not reported and the risk perception is very low. High prevalence of behavioral risk factors leaves a potential risk for rapid spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) both in slums as well as in remote tribal areas.