'She Gets the Taunts and Bears the Blame’: Infertility in Contemporary India

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Abstract

This chapter provides a preliminary survey of infertility and its social context in present-day India. It aims to demonstrate and foreground the historical aspects of this issue, which are essential in order to understand how and why the Indian fertility industry has developed in the ways it has done, and why infertility remains in many respects a taboo subject. Drawing on English-language Indian newspapers, government reports, film, and literature, Grey shows how present-day attitudes and practices have their roots in policies and ideas originally generated during the late twentieth century. He explores the demographic context and population policies of India; reproductive medicine, adoption, and surrogacy; the social and cultural context of infertility; and religion. The chapter reveals how the profound stigmatization of infertility in contemporary India disproportionately affects women, regardless of faith, caste, region, or class background.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History
Subtitle of host publicationApproaches, Contexts and Perspectives
EditorsGayle Davis, Tracy Loughran
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Pages241-262
Number of pages22
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-137-52080-7
ISBN (Print)978-1-137-52079-1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Sept 2017

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