‘Today, I am sorry to say this, lots of modern women in India want to stay single,’ declared the health minister of the southern Indian state of Karnataka. ‘Even if they get married, they don’t want to give birth. They want surrogacy. So, there is a paradigm shift in our thinking, which is not good.’ He blamed it on the old bogey of ‘Western influences’.
The minister, from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), thinks women exercising their personal or reproductive choices is something to be condemned. That some Indian women are now building up the confidence to break away from the impositions of a patriarchal society should be cause for celebration. After all, we are taught by society right from childhood that the kitchen is our rightful place and that marriage, housework and caregiving take precedence over careers or financial independence. Women who reject these impositions are shamed and humiliated – whether in private conversations or in public discourse.
