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This paper aims to understand why and how young Muslim women pursue sexual relationships in the urban bustees (slums) of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. I discuss how girls in heterosexual romantic relationships decide where, when and how to have sex, and the importance of class discourses and popular Bollywood culture in this decision-making process. Premarital sex is haram, or a forbidden act in Islam, and I will describe how girls in this research negotiate their Muslim identity whilst pursuing sexual relations with their boyfriends. Sex before marriage is also socially unacceptable in the bustee, and throughout this paper I show why young women negotiate various social risks to pursue sexual relationships. I demonstrate that girls are not overtly challenging the normative discourses of sex, gender arrangements and religious expectations in public spaces. Rather, they manipulate the norms of the "good Muslim girl" in public in order to maintain sexual relationships with their boyfriends in private. (Contains 1 figure and 9 notes.)

This article explores the way sex education for unmarried youth is understood at the national and local levels in India. It begins by describing the dominant political debates regarding the teaching of sex education in central government schools. These discussions are not gender neutral, and reveal some political dissatisfaction with India's participation in a globalizing world. Young people's access to formal sex education in the bustees (urban slums) of Kolkata is related to the construction of hegemonic Muslim femininities and masculinities. The article examines young people's experience with informal sex educators, and reveals that although informal sources are not adequate, young people are ambivalent about learning sex education in a formal context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how participatory research processes aid in our understanding of a 'proper' Muslim girlhood in the bustees (urban slums) of Kolkata. Specifically, young women in this paper use PhotoVoice to analyse what it means to be a 'good Muslim girl' in the conservative Muslim slums. By focusing on clothing and the body, young women use photographs to depict societal expectations of them. This exploration points to various ways young women resist and challenge the normative understanding of the 'good girl' in their everyday lives. The paper shows that participatory inquiry can begin a process of dialogue amongst peers to address and support young women's desires. It ends by mapping the impact of young women's participation in this research project, and calls for new ways to quantify 'genuine children's participation'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the state of sexual and reproductive education in the slums of Kolkata, India, specifically focusing on young, recently married couples. The author states that the lack of education for marginalised populations negatively effects the couples and the community as a whole. Other topics explored include reproductive health, Muslim youth, and gender-appropriate education programs.

Background: Numbers of street-connected children and young people run into many millions worldwide and include children and young people who live or work in street environments. Whether or not they remain connected to their families of origin, and despite many strengths and resiliencies, they are vulnerable to a range of risks and are excluded from mainstream social structures and opportunities., Objectives: To summarise the effectiveness of interventions for street-connected children and young people that promote inclusion and reintegration and reduce harms. To explore the processes of successful intervention and models of change in this area, and to understand how intervention effectiveness may vary in different contexts., Search Methods: We searched the following bibliographic databases, from inception to 2012, and various relevant non-governmental and organisational websites: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL); MEDLINE and PreMEDLINE; EMBASE and EMBASE Classic; CINAHL; PsycINFO; ERIC; Sociological Abstracts; Social Services Abstracts; Social Work Abstracts; Healthstar; LILACS; System for Grey literature in Europe (OpenGrey); ProQuest Dissertations and Theses; EconLit; IDEAS Economics and Finance Research; JOLIS Library Catalog of the holdings of the World Bank Group and IMF Libraries; BLDS (British Library for Development Studies); Google, Google Scholar., Selection Criteria: The review included data from harm reduction or reintegration promotion intervention studies that used a comparison group study design and were all randomised or quasi-randomised studies. Studies were included if they evaluated interventions aimed to benefit street-connected children and young people, aged 0 to 24 years, in all contexts., Data Collection and Analysis: Two review authors independently extracted data and assessed the risk of bias of included studies. Data were extracted on intervention delivery, context, process factors, equity and outcomes. Outcome measures were grouped according to whether they measured psychosocial outcomes, risky sexual behaviours or substance use. A meta-analysis was conducted for some outcomes though it was not possible for all due to differences in measurements between studies. Other outcomes were evaluated narratively., Main Results: We included 11 studies evaluating 12 interventions from high income countries. We did not find any sufficiently robust evaluations conducted in low and middle income countries (LMICs) despite the existence of many relevant programmes. Study quality overall was low to moderate and there was great variation in the measurement used by studies, making comparison difficult. Participants were drop-in and shelter based. We found no consistent results on a range of relevant outcomes within domains of psychosocial health, substance misuse and sexual risky behaviours despite the many measurements collected in the studies. The interventions being evaluated consisted of time limited therapeutically based programmes which did not prove more effective than standard shelter or drop-in services for most outcomes and in most studies. There were favourable changes from baseline in outcomes for most particpants in therapy interventions and also in standard services. There was considerable heterogeneity between studies and equity data were inconsistently reported. No study measured the primary outcome of reintegration or reported on adverse effects. The review discussion section included consideration of the relevance of the findings for LMIC settings., Authors' Conclusions: Analysis across the included studies found no consistently significant benefit for the 'new' interventions compared to standard services for street-connected children and young people. These latter interventions, however, have not been rigorously evaluated, especially in the context of LMICs. Robustly evaluating the interventions would enable better recommendations to be made for service delivery. There is a need for future research in LMICs that includes children who are on the streets due to urbanisation, war or migration and who may be vulnerable to risks such as trafficking., (Copyright © 2013 The Cochrane Collaboration. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)