Reproductive Politics in India

This monograph explores the full context of sex-selective abortion (SSA) in India by examining the historical forces, political movements, government policies, and gender regimes that shape this reproductive practice. Using qualitative research methods within a feminist methodology, including in-depth interviews with service providers and professionals in New Delhi and a content analysis of Indian newspapers, the study engages the following areas of analysis: the social structures and determinants of SSA in India, the potential for women’s agency in SSA, and the representations of SSA and SSA-seeking women in the Indian media. This research expands the discourse and analysis of SSA by facilitating a nuanced and multilayered exploration of a profoundly contextual, personal, and gendered reproductive issue by grounding data and interpretation in the lived experiences of research participants with systems-wide knowledge of SSA. Further, the feminist theory-informed analysis moves away from normative victimhood frameworks. Lastly, the book contributes to the understudied area of media discourse analysis on the intersections of gender and SSA in national news coverage.

This book takes a reproductive justice approach to argue that surrogacy as practised in the contemporary neoliberal biomarkets crosses the humanitarian thresholds of feminism. Drawing on her ethnographic work with surrogate mothers, intended parents and medical practitioners in India, the author shows the dark connections between poverty, gender, human rights violations and indignity in the surrogacy market.

This book takes a reproductive justice approach to argue that surrogacy as practised in the contemporary neoliberal biomarkets crosses the humanitarian thresholds of feminism. Drawing on her ethnographic work with surrogate mothers, intended parents and medical practitioners in India, the author shows the dark connections between poverty, gender, human rights violations and indignity in the surrogacy market.

This book takes a reproductive justice approach to argue that surrogacy as practised in the contemporary neoliberal biomarkets crosses the humanitarian thresholds of feminism. Drawing on her ethnographic work with surrogate mothers, intended parents and medical practitioners in India, the author shows the dark connections between poverty, gender, human rights violations and indignity in the surrogacy market.