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India's push-and-pull on reproductive rights
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Verfassungsdebate, 2024, Indian constitutionalism in the last decade, OnlineOnly
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PILLAI, Gauri, India’s push-and-pull on reproductive rights, Verfassungsdebate, 2024, Indian constitutionalism in the last decade, OnlineOnly - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/77263
Abstract
For a piece mapping India’s push-and-pull on reproductive rights – the expanse of its protection and the edges it comes up against – history is a good place to start. Rights in the reproductive sphere are relatively new to India. While India enacted a seemingly liberal abortion legislation as early as 1971, concerns about women’s rights were hardly the drivers behind it. Rather, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (MTPA) was motivated by fears about population growth in India and part of a host of measures (including forcible sterilisation) targeted at reducing the population growth rate. Women’s bodies were thus, at least partially, a means to achieve the State’s end of population control. To the extent that women’s own concerns were part of the assessment, the State was alarmed at the number of women who died trying to access abortion from backstreet providers. Legalisation of abortion in India was, thus, also motivated by concerns about preserving the lives of women. Yet, here too, rights were not the frame used. Rather than centering women as competent decision-makers whose reproductive decisions ought to be respected and enabled, including by providing access to safe abortions, the State benevolently stepped in to protect women from unscrupulous medical providers. Underlying this measure was, thus, a discernable protectionist intent, difficult to justify if women were truly seen as rights-holders.
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Published online: 17 April 2024
This article belongs to the debate 'Indian constitutionalism in the last decade'. Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has governed India for the past 10 years. During this time, many aspects of India’s democracy and constitutional system have come under attack. Whether it’s freedom of speech, religious freedom, or federalism: Indian constitutionalism has changed. This blog symposium explores these changes and assesses the state of constitutionalism in India.
This article belongs to the debate 'Indian constitutionalism in the last decade'. Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has governed India for the past 10 years. During this time, many aspects of India’s democracy and constitutional system have come under attack. Whether it’s freedom of speech, religious freedom, or federalism: Indian constitutionalism has changed. This blog symposium explores these changes and assesses the state of constitutionalism in India.