Fertility Control: Reproductive Desires, Kin Work, and Women's Status in Contemporary India

Conceptualizing aged reproduction: genetic connectedness, son preference and assisted reproduction in North India

In this paper, I explore the narratives on the administration of assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments amongst ageing men and women who are past their 'reproductive prime'. I use the phrase 'past their reproductive prime' with caution as ART has the capability to resurrect the desire, quest and conception of children amongst these ageing women and men. In rural agrarian Haryana in North India, ART panders to, and provides, potent narratives for perpetuation of the patrilineage for genetic continuity through the male line. The administration of ART treatments to this particular demographic is undertaken through the 'operation' of two particular forms of discourse: the desire for genetic perpetuity, and the pursuit of sons. In this enterprise, the aged pregnant body becomes an important trope of resurrecting childless marriages, evidenced by the secrecy surrounding the use of donated sperm, and the open rejection of adoption. Through an exploration of conceptualizations of pregnancy, age and legislation in India, I present the argument that ART supports the pursuit of genetic connectedness by resurrecting the social importance of genetic connectedness through sons and the pregnant wife. In this paper, I purposely engage with elements of the study of kinship and family in South Asia to undertake an analysis of how ART is used as part of a larger social narrative around conception and pregnancy amongst older married couples.

The influence of neighborhood violent crime on child-rearing: Integrating neighborhood ecologies and stratified reproduction approaches

While relationships between neighborhood violent crime and adverse child outcomes are well-established, less is known about how neighborhood violent crime influences child-rearing strategies. To address this gap, we blend neighborhood ecologies and stratified reproduction frameworks and examine interview data collected in 2014-2015 from 107 adult caregivers residing in three low and three elevated violent crime neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio. Our objective is to examine how perceptions of neighborhood violent crime and its relationship to self-reported child-rearing practices vary by level of neighborhood violence. We find that, although caregivers in low and elevated violent crime neighborhoods shared the perception of neighborhood violent crime as a concern, their narratives of child-rearing practices differed. Caregivers in elevated violent crime neighborhoods were more likely than their low violent crime counterparts to describe in experience-near terms how violent crime threatened their children's well-being. To protect children, caregivers in elevated violent crime neighborhoods reported engaging in severely constrained child-rearing strategies. These constraints have unintended consequences. While they may protect children in the short-term, they may also reproduce inequities by reducing family quality of life in other ways. These findings advance understanding of how neighborhood violent crime differentially affects child-rearing. We integrate neighborhood ecologies and stratified reproduction frameworks to capture how social inequities interact in neighborhood settings to constrain child-rearing and perpetuate inequities over time.

Numbering others: Religious demography, identity, and fertility management experiences in contemporary India

Demographers have carefully analyzed intersecting aspects of identity beyond religious category that influence fertility patterns in India, such as region, access to wealth, sex ratios, and gender dynamics (Padmanabhan, 2015). Drawing on interviews and participant-observation conducted during 15 months of field research on infertility in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, north India, between 2005-07 and 2016-17, this study shows how nuances of demographic change categorized by religion, such as changes in fertility and mortality rates, ripple through public discourse and imagination less powerfully than overall shifts in population percentages. This paper connects media and political discourse about religion, demography, and fertility in large-scale reports, such as the 2011 Census of India and the Sachar Committee Report on status of Muslims in India (Sachar et al., 2006), to the health care services and advice provided to Muslim women and children. While the Sachar Report drew attention to economic and social disadvantage among Muslims, political discourse in response to the 2011 Census continues a trend of labeling disparities in fertility rates across religious categories as a social problem. Such discourse renders individual fertility and infertility experiences invisible and reinforces longstanding negative representations of Muslims' fertility, with important implications for health, identity, and ultimately, governance (Sangamoorthy and Benton, 2012). Ethnographic data from health outreach efforts led by and serving Muslim women in Lucknow demonstrate the diversity of Muslim women's positions relative to health and fertility services as well as the intersections of various aspects of identity with fertility management experiences. By bringing these perspectives together, the paper shows how ethnographic work matters for making sense of quantitative population data. The political uses of large-scale quantitative data demonstrate how social science analysis can be used both to create "Others" and argue for neo-eugenics, and to bolster arguments for resources and reform that benefit the disadvantaged.