Title: Reproductive and sexual rights: history and contemporary challenges.

POPLINE Document Number: 305290

Author(s):

Das A

Source citation:

Journal of Family Welfare, 2006;52 Spec No:19-24.

Abstract:

Control over women's reproductive abilities and functions have been one of the key aspects of the domination over women and their secondary status in society. It is, therefore, not surprising that from the earliest times, movements for women's rights have included reproductive and sexual rights as some of their key concerns. This may sound surprising to many who consider reproductive rights as a modernday struggle, a struggle that has intensified only after the International Conference for Population and Development in 1994. This is not so. The earliest demands of women's movements in the West included demands for the right to vote, equal pay for equal work, the right to property, the right to education, as well as the right to initiate divorce, obtain and use contraceptives, have abortions and decide whether or not to go through pregnancy. In India too, the work on women's upliftment done by the great social reformers of the nineteenth century like Pandit Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar in Bengal or Mahatma Jyotiba Phule in Maharashtra included issues like widow remarriage, polygamy, and child marriage which are clearly within the realm of reproductive rights. (excerpt)

Keywords:

Global
India
Historical Review
Reproductive Rights
Family Planning
Contraception
Malthusianism
Eugenics
Population Control
Population Policy
Asia, Southern
Asia
Developing Countries
Human Rights
Political Factors
Sociocultural Factors
Population Theory
Demography
Social Sciences
Science
Genetics
Biology
Social Policy
Policy