Fertility and Women's Autonomy in the Indian Family

Ranjana, an articulate woman with a Masters Degree in English Literature, was married into a well-to-do business family from a small town in Uttar Pradesh. In the first four years of marriage she gave birth to two daughters—her parents in-law were unhappy but decided to wait. During the third pregnancy Ranjana was persuaded to undergo a sex-determina tion test. She was gently asked to abort the baby. Seeing her upset and horrified, they let her go through her pregnancy. The fourth time they gave her an ultimatum—to be turned out of the house or abort the baby girl. Ranjana complied. The sixth pregnancy turned out to be another nightmare. Finally, the seventh pregnan cy yielded a baby boy. She could not get herself to hold the baby or breast-feed him— the guilt of killing two girls to beget one boy filled her with revulsion. Around the same time newspapers carried pictures of three girls who had hanged themselves to death in Kanpur the day their mother gave birth to a baby boy after three daughters and three abortions. She reached out to the three sobbing daughters. The bewildered mother-in-law was left holding her precious grandson. Rehana, a strong-willed middle-school graduate from the green revolution area of Western U.R was married into a family of artisans. She gave birth to five beautiful daughters in the first seven years of marriage. Her husband and parents-in-law wanted her to try again with the hope of a boy. Rehana resisted. She went to a local doctor and got contraceptive pills—which she took every morning. She started working in a non-formal education programme for girls run by a voluntary organisations. Over the years she gained self-confidence—moving around her locality persuading women to send their daughters to school gave her a totally new perspective. Her husband became jealous of her celebrity status and told her that unless she agreed to have another child he would prevent her from working. He even