Sexual and reproductive health promotion at the grassroots; theater for development--a case study.

Theater is now well established in many parts of the world and has been used extensively especially in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention1,2 and family planning.3,4 It has also been an instrument for community development and women empowerment.5 It has proved popular both with adults as well as adolescents6,7 and has shown to be particularly instrumental in dealing with sensitive issues like genital mutilation.8 However its use and effective implementation as a coherent set of sustainable development practices is still very rare. Aahung in its role as a resource center for sexual health developed a training module called 'Theater for development in sexual health'. The following is a commentary on the rationale, uses and methodology of TfD followed by a case study of the above-mentioned training module.