‘Ask Where it Does Not Hurt’: Bioviability, Pragmatic Investments and Early Hysterectomies in Maharashtra, India

In this article, I ethnographically examine early-age hysterectomies among sugarcane cutters in rural Maharashtra, framing them as "pragmatic investments" negotiated within and beyond biomedical regimes. I trace how women navigate social and clinical thresholds marking a shift from bioavailability to "bioviability", where removing the uterus becomes a way to "get by." Situating hysterectomy within familial labor economies reveals a tension: although the uterus is deemed dispensable after sterilization, its removal becomes urgent to sustain work and care. Rather than alleviating suffering, early hysterectomies expose bioviability's limits, as present survival strategies intensify long-term debility, indebtedness, and vulnerability over time locally enacted.