Women’s reproductive autonomy as the new catchword (GS Paper 1, Indian Society)
Context:
- World Population Day is celebrated annually on 11 July to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues.
- The theme of this year’s World Population Day, i.e., ‘Unleashing the power of gender equality: Uplifting the voices of women and girls to unlock our world’s infinite possibilities’, could not be more apt for India.
- Families and communities prosper when women have the power to make choices about their bodies and lives.
Voice for reproductive autonomy:
- In India, the world’s most populous nation, the template for women-led development, be it in science, technology, agriculture, education or health care, must also include reproductive autonomy at its core.
- For far too long the world has been obsessed with population numbers and targets.
- Population stability comes when reproductive and sexual health decisions are free of discrimination, coercion and violence, that reproductive and sexual health services are affordable, acceptable, accessible and of high quality, and that women and couples are supported to have the number of children they want, when they want them.
India’s family planning initiatives:
- The aim is to provide an increasingly comprehensive package of reproductive health services to every potential beneficiary, with a focus on the provision of modern short and long-acting reversible contraceptives, permanent methods, information, counselling, and services, including emergency contraception.
- India’s commitment towards the Family Planning 2030 partnership includes expanding its contraceptive basket. The inclusion of new contraceptive options advances women’s rights and autonomy, leading to a spike in modern contraceptive prevalence.
- Access to timely, quality and affordable family planning services is crucial because unspaced pregnancies may have a detrimental influence on the new-born’s health as well as major effects on maternal mortality, morbidity, and health-care expenditure.
- Life expectancy at birth has significantly increased in the country over the years. Compared to the 1990s, Indians are currently living a decade longer.
- Maternal mortality: The current rate of maternal mortality is 97 (per 100,000 live births in a year), down from 254 in 2004.
- Gender empowerment: Since the beginning of 2000, India has cut the number of child marriages by half. Teen pregnancies, too, have dramatically decreased.
- Access to vital services: Access to vital services, including health, education, and nutrition, has also improved.
Challenges:
- According to the most recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), just 10% of women in India are independently able to take decisions about their own health, and 11% of women believe that marital violence is acceptable if a woman refuses to have sex with her husband.
- Nearly half of all pregnancies in India are unplanned, as they are globally.
Focus on gender equality:
- Advancing gender equality is not just about women but also about populations as a whole. In ageing societies that worry about labour productivity, achieving gender parity in the workforce is the most effective way to improve output and income growth.
- And in countries experiencing rapid population growth, women’s empowerment through education and family planning can bring enormous benefits by way of human capital and inclusive economic development.
- More importantly, the focus on gender equality helps shift the focus away from the notion of ‘population stabilisation’ to ‘population dynamics’ based on reproductive choices people make.
- India has a significant opportunity to advance gender equality and grow its economy. In fact, raising the women’s labour force participation by 10 percentage points might account for more than 70% of the potential GDP growth opportunity ($770 billion in additional GDP by 2025).
Future Roadmap:
- Focusing on gender equality-centred growth, rights, and choices promises to help all achieve their aspirations. Gender equality can be ensured by making investments in a woman’s life at every stage, from childbirth to adolescence to maturity.
- Engaging with women, girls and other marginalised people and formulating legislation and policies that empower them to assert their rights and take life changing personal decisions are the first steps in this direction.
Way Forward:
- World Population Day 2023 is an opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to putting individual rights, particularly women’s rights and well-being, at the centre of the population and development discourse.
- Gender-just approaches and solutions are the fundamental building blocks of a more prosperous India, and indeed the world.
