Event Title
Using bodies: negotiating reproductive health in an Indian village
Description
This study considers the ways in which women's bodies are at once objects of state population planning and subjects of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) discourse. By examining the everyday geographies of 29 women in Daultabad Village, India, it is possible to see the ways in which bodies become tools to negotiate sexual and reproductive desires, reshaping power relations related to SRH. The strategies employed by women in light of multiple and conflicting state and village discourses on SRH make visible the spaces of hope created by and with bodies. Women both reproduce and subvert village patriarchy, state planning and nationalism and in doing so foreground their bodies and the village in which they live as spaces of political action. This project draws upon interview-based research conducted by the author in India as well as scholarly work on bodies, states, nationalism, and sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
8-3-2008 8:00 AM
Subject - LCSH
Women--India--Agra (District)--Identity; Sex role--India--Agra (District); Reproductive health--India--Agra (District)
End Date
8-3-2008 5:00 PM
Session
Poster Session
Genre/Form
posters
Type
event
Geographic Coverage
Agra (India : District)
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author's written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
Keywords
bodies, gender, sexual and reproductive health, nationalism and critical geographies
Using bodies: negotiating reproductive health in an Indian village
This study considers the ways in which women's bodies are at once objects of state population planning and subjects of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) discourse. By examining the everyday geographies of 29 women in Daultabad Village, India, it is possible to see the ways in which bodies become tools to negotiate sexual and reproductive desires, reshaping power relations related to SRH. The strategies employed by women in light of multiple and conflicting state and village discourses on SRH make visible the spaces of hope created by and with bodies. Women both reproduce and subvert village patriarchy, state planning and nationalism and in doing so foreground their bodies and the village in which they live as spaces of political action. This project draws upon interview-based research conducted by the author in India as well as scholarly work on bodies, states, nationalism, and sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing.