This chapter is a critique of the institutionalization of reproductive control as a punishment mechanism within the context of honour-based norms in India. It critically reflects on how women’s reproductive autonomy is violated through forced pregnancy, withholding of abortion, or coerced sterilization against women for perceived breaches of patriarchal honour. Based on contemporary Haryana and Rajasthan cases, and rooted in the theories of reproductive governance, institutional patriarchy, and intersectionality, the chapter examines how formal institutions like the judiciary, police, and healthcare services typically work in concert with informal agencies like khap panchayats to impose these mechanisms of control. Applying qualitative research that comprises legal ethnographies, media analysis, and interviews with survivors and practitioners, this research unearths how institutional arrangements consistently fail to provide reproductive justice. Such failures are explored in the context of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on gender equality, SDG 16, which promotes access to justice and accountable institutions, and SDG 10 that demands the reduction of inequalities. The chapter finally promotes rights-based, gender-sensitive institutional change.

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Reproductive Justice and the SDGs: Addressing the Punishment of Women Under Honour Norms in South Asia

  • Shikha Vasishta

摘要

This chapter is a critique of the institutionalization of reproductive control as a punishment mechanism within the context of honour-based norms in India. It critically reflects on how women’s reproductive autonomy is violated through forced pregnancy, withholding of abortion, or coerced sterilization against women for perceived breaches of patriarchal honour. Based on contemporary Haryana and Rajasthan cases, and rooted in the theories of reproductive governance, institutional patriarchy, and intersectionality, the chapter examines how formal institutions like the judiciary, police, and healthcare services typically work in concert with informal agencies like khap panchayats to impose these mechanisms of control. Applying qualitative research that comprises legal ethnographies, media analysis, and interviews with survivors and practitioners, this research unearths how institutional arrangements consistently fail to provide reproductive justice. Such failures are explored in the context of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 on gender equality, SDG 16, which promotes access to justice and accountable institutions, and SDG 10 that demands the reduction of inequalities. The chapter finally promotes rights-based, gender-sensitive institutional change.