Chapter 1. Status of Women’s Empowerment and the Context of Sex Selective Abortions in India
Chapter 2. The Pre-Conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Technique (PC&PNDT) Act and the Ethics of the Medical Practitioners
Chapter 3. Ethical and Feminist Discourse on Sex Selective Abortions
Chapter 4. Women’s Empowerment and Notions of Vansh
Chapter 5. Vansh ko Aage Badhana Hain (Take the Lineage Forward) in Low-Income Settlements in Delhi
Chapter 6. Narratives of Vanshacha Diva Lav (Light the Lineage Lamp) Son Preference in Maharashtra State, India
Chapter 7. Women’s Empowerment and Son Preferences: Narratives from Odisha, India
Chapter 8. ‘Doctors Who Rock the Cradle’: Role of Medical Practitioners in Sex Selective Abortions

Conclusion

References
Index

Women’s Empowerment and Son Preference in India

Feminist and Ethical discourse on Sex Selective Abortions

Sheela Suryanarayanan

206 pages, 20 ills., bibliog., index

ISBN 978-1-83695-008-0 Hb Published (June 2025)

eISBN 978-1-83695-007-3
web ISBN 978-1-83695-007-3

Details

“This is an interesting study on a topic that is very relevant in our times and not only in the context of India, but in several cultures where there exists a preference for the birth of sons.” • Jyotsna A. Gupta, University of Humanist Studies, Utrecht

Sex selective abortions are unjust, unethical and illegal in India, yet the experience of motherhood for pregnant women can be influenced by ‘son preference’ from those who support female feticide. Women are denied agency in exercising reproductive rights and the medical fraternity often fosters the misuse of technologies for sex selective abortions in India. This book reviews the feminist, ethical and legal discourse on sex selective abortions and draws on women’s empowerment as an analytical lens to examine the son preference expressed in the notion of Vansh (lineage) among pregnant women, their partner s and mothers-in-law in three Indian states.

Sheela Suryanarayanan is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Hyderabad. She was invited by Rajya Sabha Surrogacy Committee, Government of India, to provide insight on the Draft Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2019 and her suggestions have been included in the Bill. She has published A Transnational Feminist View of Surrogacy Biomarkets in India (Springer Singapore, 2019).

Series: Volume 56, Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives

Subject: Political and Economic Anthropology Gender Studies and Sexuality Medical Anthropology

Area: Asia

berghahn New York · Oxford

Contents

Women’s Empowerment and Son Preference in India

Feminist and Ethical discourse on Sex Selective Abortions

Sheela Suryanarayanan

Series: Volume 56, Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives

Subject: Political and Economic Anthropology Gender Studies and Sexuality Medical Anthropology

Area: Asia

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Contents

Women’s Empowerment and Son Preference in India

Feminist and Ethical discourse on Sex Selective Abortions

Sheela Suryanarayanan

Series: Volume 56, Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality: Social and Cultural Perspectives

Subject: Political and Economic Anthropology Gender Studies and Sexuality Medical Anthropology

Area: Asia