Sexual and reproductive rights in India

 

“Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights”

-HILLARY CLINTON

 

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) mean that you should be able to make your own decisions about your body and have all necessary information regarding it. You should have access to sexual and reproductive health services, you should have the right to choose who you want to marry and whether you want to have children or not and if yes, then how many and when. It also means that our lives should be free from all forms of sexual violence, including rape, female genital mutilation, forced pregnancy, forced abortion and forced sterilization.

SRHR is a concept that Indians, and South Asians are largely ignorant and aloof about. The taboo around topics like sex and sexuality is the root cause for the many issues people, especially women, face daily.

Reproductive health means a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of reproductive disease or infirmity whereas sexual health is for a positive and respectful approach to sexuality and sexual relationships, as well as the possibility of having pleasurable and safe sexual experiences, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.

According to a 2019 report by the Family Planning Association (FPA), in India, 14% of pregnancies amongst women aged under 20 are unplanned. It posits further that over 34% of adolescent married girls admitted to being physically, emotionally, or sexually assaulted. Fifty percent of maternal deaths among girls from 15 to 19 years of age occur due to unsafe abortion practices. All this in a scenario where sexual and reproductive health is not even a category that has its own laws and medical courses.

India accounts for 20% of maternal deaths worldwide, and about 75% of these deaths are preventable if women have access to family planning services and emergency obstetric care. So we see that SRHR is closely linked with not only Right to Reproductive and Sexual Health Services but Right to Access to Information and Education as well. 

States’ obligations to guarantee these rights require that women and girls not only have access to comprehensive reproductive health information and services but also that they experience positive reproductive health outcomes such as lower rates of unsafe abortion and maternal mortality and the opportunity to make fully informed decisions—free from violence, discrimination, and coercion—about their sexuality and reproduction.

According to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (1971), a woman has the right to medical termination of pregnancy up to 12 weeks (in the opinion of one doctor) and 20 weeks (in the opinion of 2 doctors) if giving birth would cause unjust physical or mental harm to the woman, or if the child would be born with severe defects. However, January 2020 brought about an amendment to this act, thus raising the upper limit from 20 to 24 weeks for women including rape survivors, victims of incest, differently abled women and minors. Failure of contraception is also acknowledged and MTP is now available to “any woman or her partner” replacing the requirement for “only married woman or her husband”. Though this amendment looks at a very sensitive issue with consideration, the absence of choice for women is visible in the MTP. Even though this provision makes abortion legal to a certain extent, the decision to grant the same only rests on the doctor’s opinion. This opinion goes beyond the medical diagnosis of whether the woman can have the abortion to doctors exercising their opinions on whether she should have the abortion. Instead of giving women the right to choose and access safe abortions, this provision strips them off the agency over their own bodies.

Nevertheless, the amendment of the MTP illustrates the significant and evolving role the judiciary can play in India to address the legal and practical barriers which operate to deny women and girls their reproductive rights. While litigation has its challenges, including long time frames and difficulty in implementation of decisions, the robust recognition of reproductive rights as fundamental rights emerging from Indian courts has created a mandate for the government to shift away from population control approaches, confront discriminatory stereotypes that limit women’s authority, and instead centre women’s rights to dignity, autonomy, and bodily integrity with progressive reproductive health related laws and policies.

By- Saumya Singh and Ashwin Aulakh