Assessing The Reproductive Health of Women in India: Enabling Agency Through Information

Abstract

The Emergency Contraceptive Pills and Abortion pills are two aspects of Reproductive Health that is at the forefront of discussion in India with rising consumption. While the former is sold Over the Counter and the latter through prescription only, women have been found to consume this pill frequently and outside of medical oversight as prescribed respectively. This has affected the Reproductive Health of women to varying degrees and remains at the centre of controversy among medical professionals. In order to ensure that women are able to exercise their agency, the availability of information is essential which is currently being hampered due to lack of interaction with the medical professionals. To that end the research wishes to understand the role of information in the perception of agency among women in relation to other socio-political factors and to seek the interplay of sources of information in reproductive decision-making. The study employs a mixed methodology with the Relative Autonomy Index for the Emergency Contraceptive Pills and qualitative interviews for the Abortion Pills. At present, when it comes to Emergency Contraceptive Pills women fall in the middle of the spectrum of agency, leaving scope for improvement, while information is an important determinant in decision-making. However, the agency of women in choosing a chemical abortion is severely constrained due to multiple external constraints, though information plays an aiding factor. This calls for better policies that would strengthen information dissemination to enable agency among women in making decisions pertaining to reproductive health.