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Birth control movement in colonial India: exploring reproductive health issues

Author Affiliations

  • 1Department of History, Ramjas College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India

Int. Res. J. Social Sci., Volume 10, Issue (2), Pages 30-34, April,14 (2021)

Abstract

Birth control movement was started in India in the late nineteenth century during the colonial period. Overpopulation theory of Thomas Malthus had impacted colonial discourse on this subject, employing which the population growth of India was held responsible for the rising poverty. Thus, from the outset birth control in colonial India became synonymous with population control. This paper explores the colonial context of the debate on birth control in India. It studies the position taken up by the middle class Indian intellectuals along with some of the native women organizations on this issue. The paper underlines that unlike the west, in India birth control did not seek to empower women offering them a better reproductive life and control over their sexuality, rather aiming population control, a moral as well as tangible pressure of regulating the numbers was laid on the women in India.

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