REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN INDIA: AN OVERVIEW

The Constitution of India makes provision for justice and equal rights for each citizen of this country. These provisions advocate living with full of freedom and enjoying fundamental rights without any gender discriminations. Among the various rights, reproductive rights deserve special mention as far as the fundamental human rights of women are concerned. Women’ reproductive rights include a wide range of rights like decision making on reproductive health issues, setting family plan, and deciding upon well-being and autonomy by the women themselves. An international Convention on the ‘Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women’ (CEDAW) was held by the United Nations in 1979. This convention led the path for the enactment of various important legislations for the protection of women rights all over the world. Unfortunately, the effective implementation of the resolution of CEDAW still remains far away to achieve in India. Review of literature revealed, human rights, more specifically reproductive rights of women are hardly addressed and suffer a long history of negligence in India. Consequently, the incidences like high rate of maternal mortality, widespread anaemia among women of reproductive age groups, limited access to modern methods of contraception, and occurrence of many cases of unintended pregnancies are appearing as the overwhelming challenges on the path to establish reproductive health rights of women in our country. The present theoretical study critically assesses the reproductive health status of women and analyses the prevailing causes, hindering the establishment of their reproductive health rights in urban and rural parts of India. The current study summarizes the ways despite the limited scope of education, inadequate awareness, profound gender discrimination, orthodox religious belief, dominance of patriarchal system and poor access to reproductive healthcare services are posing to fulfil reproductive rights of women along with gender equality, individual autonomy, and well-being. The present study suggests an achievable road map to move towards the goal of women empowerment and human rights.