CHOICE, CONTROL AND CONFLICT: A CRITICAL STUDY OF WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN INDIA
AUTHOR – ASHMEET KAUR KHANUJA, STUDENT AT UNITEDWORLD SCHOOL OF LAW KARNAVATI UNIVERSITY
BEST CITATION – ASHMEET KAUR KHANUJA, CHOICE, CONTROL AND CONFLICT: A CRITICAL STUDY OF WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS IN INDIA, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 6 (7) OF 2026, PG. 171-177, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
Reproductive rights are also a constituent of the human rights of women and are directly connected to the matter of bodily autonomy, dignity, and gender equality. The history of socio-political arguments in India on population control, family planning, and women health in India has influenced these rights. The most notorious in this respect was the mass forced sterilizations of the Emergency period of 1975-77, when state-organized violence of the population control in extreme violation of personal freedom and self-determination was imposed[1]. Even though India has since shifted to a rights-based approach to reproductive health, there are still problems. Women, especially of the marginalized groups, are still under coercion in sterilization camps, inability to use safe methods of contraceptives and inefficiency in appreciating their consent in making decisions about reproduction[2]. Not only are these practices a subject of public health concern and even policy concern, but also they pose significant criminal law issues of consent, bodily injury and state responsibility.
This research paper is aimed at critically examining ways in which criminal law in India has dealt with contravention of women reproductive rights as a part of forced sterilization and birth control controversies. The paper will analyze the presence of sufficient protections against coercion and provision of reproductive freedom to women by the current provisions in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (previously IPC), constitutional safeguards in Articles 14, 19, and 21, and judicial interpretations. Additionally, the paper considers the intersection of reproductive rights and workplace rights where women might experience indirect discrimination or coercion regarding pregnancy and contraceptives[3]. The paper will attempt to establish whether the law offers adequate protection to women against the infringements of bodily autonomy by placing reproductive rights in the wider context of the criminal law
[1] Preet K. Dhillon et al., Correlates of Female Sterilization Regret in the Southern States of India, 33 J. Biosoc. Sci. 3 (2001).
[2] Mahesh Karra, Unwanted Family Planning Including Sterilization Regret in India: Evidence from NFHS-5 (2019–2021), 55 Stud. Fam. Plann. (2024).
[3] Abhishek Singh, Sterilization Regret Among Married Women in India: Trends, Patterns and Correlates, 45 Int’l Persp. on Sexual & Reprod. Health (2019).