For 30 years, health counselor Arif Jafar has been handing out condoms at the sprawling Charbagh train station in his hometown of Lucknow, a midsize city in northern India.

His clients are males who have sex with males, and the train station is a spot where they feel safe, he says — a public area, bustling with people, where they can blend in with the crowds. A few times a week, Jafar, 48, holds counseling sessions right next to the train platforms. He hands out condoms and flyers with cartoons demonstrating how to use them. Many of his clients cannot read.

But in India, showing men how to use a condom for sex with other men can land you in prison. Section 377 of the Indian penal codeoutlaws any sex — even consensual — that goes "against the order of nature." The law dates back to 1861, during British colonial rule. It has mostly been used by police, criminals or blackmailers to harass men for having same-sex intercourse.

That is what happened to Jafar in July 2001. He was arrested and charged with "promotion and abetment of crime" and criminal conspiracy under Section 377. He ended up spending 47 days in jail.

A history of harassment

Police ransacked the office of Jafar's health charity, Bharosa Trust, and dragged him and three colleagues out into the city's central Hazratganj traffic circle. They called the press and waited for TV cameras to assemble — and then beat the men.

"They were saying, 'These people are homosexuals, and that is why we are trying to punish them,' " Jafar recalls.

No passers-by intervened.

Jafar is a gay man in a country where homosexuality is controversial. His close friends and family knew his sexual orientation, but that day, it was broadcast live on national TV. Read more via NPR