"Kya family planning after marriage hoti hai?": Integrating Cultural Sensitivity in an LLM Chatbot for Reproductive Health

Abstract: Access to sexual and reproductive health information remains a challenge in many communities globally, due to cultural taboos and limited availability of healthcare providers. Public health organizations are increasingly turning to LLMs to improve access to timely and personalized information. However, recent HCI scholarship indicates that significant challenges remain in incorporating context awareness and mitigating bias in LLMs. In this paper, we study the development of a culturally-appropriate LLM-based chatbot for reproductive health with underserved women in urban India. Through user interactions, focus groups, and interviews with multiple stakeholders, we examine the chatbot's response to sensitive and highly contextual queries on reproductive health. Our findings reveal strengths and limitations of the system in capturing local context, and complexities around what constitutes "culture". Finally, we discuss how local context might be better integrated, and present a framework to inform the design of culturally-sensitive chatbots for community health.