Full transcript
0:04[music]
0:09[music]
0:17Hello everyone. I welcome you once again
0:19to my course introduction to medical
0:21humanities. This is lecture 17. In this
0:24particular lecture, we are going to
0:26discuss the abortion narratives for
0:28which I have identified three films Matu
0:31Bhumi, Jesar and Chi as a point of
0:35analysis.
0:37Before we begin, here is a quick
0:38overview of what I'm going to say. Let's
0:41move forward. Now before we begin with
0:44the analysis of Jesar, Chi and Matu
0:49Bhumi, the three films chosen for
0:52analysis, we will have to indulge in
0:54some of these keywords to better
0:56understand or better analyze the film.
1:00Uh the first concept is that of
1:02abortion. So what is an abortion? So
1:05abortion refers to the termination of
1:07pregnancy by removing the embryo or
1:10fetus from the uterus before it can
1:13survive independently. This can be done
1:16through medical or surgical procedure.
1:18Additionally we have to also understand
1:22the term feticide. Now in the case of
1:26abortion and in the case of feticide in
1:30both the cases there is a fetus. In
1:32feticide [snorts] there is a deliberate
1:34act of causing the death of the fetus.
1:38This term is often used in the context
1:40of sex selection but many times you will
1:44find that these words are used as
1:47synonyms but they are very different in
1:49terms of their approach. feticide uh is
1:53usually knowing what the fetus is and
1:57then with some purpose uh aborting that.
2:02So these kind of terminations of
2:05pregnancies are due to severe fetal
2:08anomalies either or with some ulterior
2:12motive like sex selective abortion.
2:14Another key word for understanding
2:18abortion in the context of India is
2:20infanticide. And if you look at your
2:22screen, you find that it is a deliberate
2:26killing of a child within the first year
2:28of life often by parents and can involve
2:32methods such as strangulation, head
2:34trauma, suffocation, and drowning. While
2:37this may look very serious to you and
2:41you might think that this is something
2:42that is not happening, there is immense
2:45amount of data anthropological study so
2:47to say which will vouch for this. So uh
2:51this is a very prominent method that you
2:54have to understand in terms of how
2:56gender preference works in the context
2:58of India. There is also neonaticide
3:01which is killing of a child within first
3:0424 hours and 1 month of age. Now
3:09if you look at whether it is abortion,
3:13neonaticide,
3:15infanticide or fiticide, most of them
3:19have a gender preference or what you can
3:22call sex selection especially in the
3:24context of South Asia and to some extent
3:29India, Pakistan where male higher
3:31preference is something which is part of
3:34the social system. it is very much
3:37ingrained within uh the family structure
3:40and that is why we find a strong
3:43preference for male child in these
3:45countries.
3:47Before we uh go ahead, I think it's very
3:50important to understand the legal
3:53concepts around how abortion has been
3:56legalized in India. Uh in fact if you
4:00look at uh the trajectory of legal
4:04aspects how how law backs abortion
4:08practices it was only 1971 that the MTP
4:13which is medical termination of
4:14pregnancy act came. uh if you remember I
4:17dealt with this when I was talking about
4:20the historical trajectory of uh health
4:22care in India in detail but even here I
4:25briefly touch upon it that it is it was
4:28modeled on Britain's abortion act. So
4:31you will find that in the in the act
4:34itself [snorts] there are many many
4:38elements that are not probably much
4:41suited to the Indian context. it was a
4:43straight import from the uh UK and
4:47therefore it does not take into account
4:49primarily the
4:52diversity in terms of resources, in
4:55terms of education, in terms of
4:57information, in terms of geography that
5:00India has and I think those are things
5:03that have been addressed during the
5:05subsequent uh amendments. Additionally,
5:09uh if you look at what prompted this
5:11act, it was uh uh basically to reduce
5:15the mortality rate and uh also prevent
5:19women from unsafe abortion
5:22at that point of time. Two rules that
5:24are important for us to understand 20
5:27weeks of gastational period and married
5:30women. uh so this was the case following
5:34which one of the important acts that we
5:37have to understand in case of abortion
5:39is PCPNDT act which is preconception
5:43prenatal determination act now in this
5:47act what happened I'll give you a little
5:49background of what happened a little
5:51before and I think that will be a good
5:52idea to set your mind to understand uh
5:56abortion context in in India so it so
5:59happened uh that When ultrasound came to
6:02India, it became a massive success and
6:05especially uh in the field of gynecology
6:10uh it was used like never before. What
6:13happened then? It happened that there
6:17was a phenomena of identifying the sex
6:21of the fetus and aborting it if it was a
6:26female fetus. This was problematic and
6:30led to
6:32very screwed kind of a sex ratio.
6:35Government was quick to tap this and
6:39immediately in 1994
6:42this act of PCPND came which identified
6:47that any of the hospitals or clinics
6:53doing any kind of prenatal sex
6:56determination via ultrasound will be
6:59punished. This became a punishable
7:01offense. Now
7:04one word I think uh one acronym rather
7:07uh that you must Google at some point of
7:10time you will find more about it is de
7:13maru uh you must have heard of bimaru
7:16states in the context of economics but
7:18in the context of abortion there was a
7:21acronym de mararu which is daughter
7:24eliminating male aspiring rage for
7:26ultrasound. this meant of the phenomena
7:30of ultrasound used for uh identifying
7:33the sex of the fetus and subsequent
7:35abortion. So this was an important
7:39milestone in the abortion history of
7:41India because legally the killing of the
7:45female fetus was not possible because
7:47PCPND act came in practice.
7:52This act was further amended in 2003 and
7:55if you look at your screen you find that
7:57a response to the widespread misuse of
7:59ultrasound technology was addressed. The
8:02original act had failed to serve its
8:04purpose. The amendment tited
8:07restrictions but grounded realities
8:09still remain unchanged. What do I mean
8:11by this? Now though the act came in
8:15practice in 1994 itself, it took 9 years
8:20to identify that there was still
8:23practice of sex selection going on and
8:26therefore it was important that stricter
8:28measures were taken place. Now 2003
8:32that is the work that happened. they
8:35identified more stringent ways in which
8:38this law could be implemented and that
8:41has definitely changed the way we look
8:43at uh the abortion narrative today. A
8:47very important act also is the MTP
8:52amendment act 2021
8:54and above and everything I think what it
8:57did was it extended the guestal period
9:00to 24 weeks. If you don't understand
9:03what is a gastation period, it is the
9:05period of woman being pregnant. So, uh
9:07that extended to 24 weeks and in some
9:10cases 28 weeks. Additionally, the
9:14married woman clause became woman
9:16instead of married woman alone. So, it
9:18was a long overdue change and still uh
9:21we think that there are many uh economic
9:24and cultural issues that persist which
9:26are to be taken care of. In terms of
9:29other legal provisions that we can talk
9:31about, I will briefly mention there is
9:33dowry prohibition act 1961,
9:37immoral traffic prevention act 1956.
9:40These have limited impact but you can
9:44find that the roots of this act to be
9:50made and implemented primarily lies in
9:53the fact that there is a gender bias in
9:57India.
9:58What is the core problem then? The core
10:00problem remains that the MTP act gave
10:03married women initially the right to
10:05abort. This was used by families to
10:08force sex elective abortion on women. A
10:12legal solution alone cannot address what
10:14is essentially a socioultural crisis.
10:17Thus, abortion narratives in India are
10:20not essentially narrative of
10:21emancipation. It is a struggle between
10:24bodily autonomy and male higher
10:26preference. a conflict between choice
10:28and coercion. So what you see in terms
10:32of legal provisions do not really find
10:36its implementation in society because
10:39social the barriers that are constructed
10:42by society are so immense that probably
10:45even with the legal provision they still
10:48struggle to find its implementation the
10:52way they are imagined.
10:55uh these days data is everything and
10:58data speaks for what we say. A quick
11:01data for you to follow. So UNFPA state
11:05of world population report talks about u
11:09142.6
11:11million please refer to your screen
11:14142.6 million missing females globally
11:18out of which 45.8 8 million are from
11:22India itself.
11:24That's a very alarming figure.
11:27Between 2007 to 2016, we find 5.5
11:34missing females
11:36and this goes to 6.8 million as
11:40projected by 2030. Dylon studies says
11:44this Dylan not epidylan ladies and
11:47gentlemen. So what is the reason? Three
11:51barriers we can think of location,
11:55finance and social stigma. What do you
11:58mean when I say location? That the rural
12:03urban divide of India which is a major
12:06problem has also affected women from
12:10accessing abortion.
12:12One. Number two, safe abortion need
12:17money or in the economic divide of
12:20India, it is not easy for all women to
12:23find the right kind of economic
12:25resources to access safe abortion. So
12:29poor women face these issues. The third
12:32is around social stigma because abortion
12:36is so tabooed.
12:39Like if you remember I spoke about the
12:42pro-life pro-choice debate. So in the
12:45context of India the narrative of
12:48pro-choice is very weak compared to
12:51pro-life. And that is why a lot of taboo
12:54and stigma is attached to the process of
12:56abortion. So this gets all the more
13:00convoluted when you think of abortion
13:03visa v male higher preference. So
13:08this data speaks of all these
13:11possibilities, all these aspects.
13:16Let us now come to Hindu cinema. You
13:18will find that there are many films that
13:20use the trope of abortion in their uh
13:24reflection. Some of it I have listed
13:26here. There is a film called Ka. There
13:28is Zaher Salam Namaste Teang Razi Good
13:32News Mimi. My source is mostly Hindi
13:36films. Like I said earlier, you might
13:39come across several other films in
13:42different other languages that do talk
13:45about abortion that do suggest uh the
13:49theme of abortion. But I mean you have
13:51to uh spare me for that that my corpus
13:54is mostly Hindi cinema and that is where
13:57I bring my reference point from. In most
14:00of these films, you will find that it's
14:03an accidental plot and you will see that
14:07in all these films mostly they have
14:10prioritized motherhood or equated
14:13abortion with murder. Now very few films
14:18you will find in which you will find it
14:20as a kind of a choice. One film that I
14:22list here is Yua where uh Shashi uh the
14:26protagonist aborts out of rage at
14:29husband's choice. And second is a film
14:32very acclaimed film Ayetaras. You must
14:34have seen Priyanka Chopra in a very uh
14:38ambitious woman avatar and uh she's
14:41Sonia in that film and she gets uh
14:43abortion done to pursue her career which
14:47is not portrayed in a very great light
14:49but these are some of the passing
14:51references in which you find abortion
14:53trope in Hindi cinema. The three films
14:56that we are going to discuss today is
14:59Matu Bhumi, Chi and Jesar.
15:03One film Matri Bhumi came out long back
15:06in 1991
15:08and that film is a parallel cinema over
15:12a period of time in contemporary times
15:14rather. We see these two films and more
15:17than that. I I took up these films for
15:19analysis. But there are more films that
15:21you can think of and you can see with
15:24abortion context. So these two films are
15:26very popular films uh and they bring
15:29narrative of abortion visav male higher
15:32preference or male preference as a child
15:36into their uh wider scope of what they
15:39want to say in the film.
15:43Let us go one by one. So this film Matru
15:46Bhumi it's projected to be a 2050s
15:49dystopian village. Now many of you must
15:52have heard of the term utopia. So it's
15:54an ideal condition right? So in dystopia
15:58we imagine a future which is not so
16:02ideal. So in this particular film which
16:04is called Matu Bhumi you imagine a
16:08nation without women. The subtitle is
16:10also like that. It says uh a nation
16:13without women. So what will happen if
16:15the sex selection practices continue?
16:17What will happen? There will be no
16:19women. So what will be the condition of
16:21the state if there are no women? So that
16:24is the kind of dystopia Manisha
16:26imagines. And if you look at the opening
16:29scene of the film, there is a small
16:32infant uh uh and that particular scene
16:36she's dipped into milk. The tradition is
16:40called dudpiti which means drinking
16:44milk. So what happens that the infant is
16:49I mean is drowned into that milk and
16:54kind of death happens.
16:57uh it's a very poant scene leaves will
16:59leave you disturbed for some days and
17:01that is why there are disclaimers in
17:04most of the films that I discuss about
17:06uh you know scenes that might affect you
17:10so you must be also careful while you
17:12watch. So in the film in terms of plot
17:16there is Ramcharan a father of five men
17:19who buys a young girl named Khalki
17:23and this girl is bought for five lakhs
17:26and five cows
17:28and this woman is then married to all of
17:31them all the five boys.
17:34She falls in love with the youngest one.
17:37He's more sensitive, understanding. He
17:40listens to her. But his own brothers
17:43become so jealous of this fact that they
17:46murder him.
17:48Apparently,
17:50Khalki escapes from the
17:54house she's in. Uh, and the servant boy
17:58gets killed by the men of the family.
18:00But because she's transgressed the
18:04borders of the home,
18:07she has to be punished. And in terms of
18:09punishment, what happens is that she's
18:11gang raped by many people in the cow
18:15shed. She becomes pregnant and the
18:18entire village has come to say that she
18:22this is my child. This is my child, you
18:24know, to claim that uh fatherhood.
18:28Finally, she gives birth to a girl. And
18:30that is where the film ends. If you look
18:33at the film, it's a very poant take on
18:38what could be how a country will look or
18:41how a place will look if there are no
18:44women over there. So a clear-cut
18:49attack on sex selective practices is
18:51what you see in this film. The second
18:54film is Chi.
18:57Now Chri is also a very disturbing film.
19:02If you look at this image itself on your
19:04screen, you find that there are so many
19:07babies. It's a well. It's a scene in
19:10which there is a well full of infants,
19:14girl infants. So the film opens with a
19:17spiritually coerced feticide performed
19:20by a woman on her body. So she's trying
19:23to kill her own fetus and uh you find
19:28that there is a woman Sakshi played by
19:30Nusra Barucha who's pregnant and she's
19:33brought to the village by her husband
19:35and uh where she stays it's a safe house
19:39of the village and it is infested with
19:42evil spirits. I mean initially that is
19:45the case that is shown in the film but
19:48over a period of time when the film
19:50progresses we find that this is not an
19:54act of evil spirit. It is in fact
19:59rationalizing
20:00the feticide that is happening and uh
20:04Sakshi finally comes across these
20:07horrors of the village and hallucinates
20:10a water hole full of baby corpses. So
20:13what she hallucinates later becomes
20:15truth. But it is also again a very
20:18dystopian kind of a narrative in which
20:21you imagine something uh imagine a
20:24future when when there is something like
20:25this happening.
20:27Also uh in this film why they are doing
20:30this is because they are thinking there
20:33is a cultural narrative that if these
20:38feticide will happen if these infants
20:41will be killed
20:44then there will be a good harvest. Jesar
20:48again is a very interesting film and you
20:51find that the film opens with a woman on
20:56an ultrasound table and uh after I think
21:00six abortions uh as far as I remember
21:03you find that this woman is again
21:05pregnant with a female child and now
21:08they the husband and the wife they don't
21:10want to abort and uh that's why they run
21:14away. So uh the rest of the film is
21:18about them running away and the other
21:20people chasing them. So the regression
21:22is brilliantly captured by the village
21:24of men where there are almost no woman
21:27as an outcome of sex selective abortion
21:30and infanticide. The film ends with a
21:33note of change of heart where they are
21:34kind of becoming welcoming that is that
21:37done there.
21:39Now what are the contact points in these
21:42three films? How do you go about it? The
21:44first film which is Matu Bhumi does not
21:47show abortion directly.
21:50What does it do? It shows the extreme
21:53consequences of unchecked sex elective
21:56abortion and infanticide.
21:59Women's body remain not only the tool
22:02for sexual desire but and continuing the
22:05family line but
22:08what you see in the film is that they
22:12become sight of control.
22:15Khalki is coerced into polyandry and
22:19that is how we find that
22:23bodies will not end even if the world it
22:26has destroyed.
22:28The film critiques the sun preference
22:30like I told you earlier. The subtitle of
22:32the film says a nation without women
22:36clearly indicating so you know you also
22:39have to map it with the timeline it came
22:41around 1991 a clear indication of the
22:45time when sex selection was rampant and
22:50the sex ratio was getting completely
22:53screwed. So uh that is what this film
22:56talks about. So that is what you will
22:59see in the film. The second uh film
23:02which is chi you will see that uses
23:05female infanticide and coerced abortion
23:09as the central horror and not just the
23:12backdrop. So almost from the very uh few
23:15I mean after few scenes you will just
23:18start seeing that the film has taken up
23:20that issue directly. uh infanticide is
23:24shown as ritual practice embedded in
23:26local culture and economy. There is a
23:28well which is full of infants, girl
23:30infants and uh it's a visual metaphor
23:33for Indian missing females.
23:36The one of the protagonist Bano Dvi
23:39enforces the infanticide tradition in
23:41the film. The third film Jesar has mudra
23:45Shalini Pande uh who has already
23:48undergone multiple abortions. I think
23:50six is what I remember and uh Jaesh uh
23:53her husband Rani who's which is played
23:55by Ranir Singh is the only man who does
23:57not want a son and uh Satasi which is a
24:03marriage arranged at birth is shown as
24:05one of the local cultural practices that
24:07controls women's life and reproductive
24:10choices. So just like dudi we also have
24:12satasati which is a marriage
24:14arrangement.
24:16uh if you look at just a quick table for
24:18you to understand. Uh I will not go into
24:21detail because I have already done uh a
24:24detailed analysis but I quickly uh you
24:27know uh draw a table to talk about the
24:30abortion type, the setting, female
24:33character, perpetrator of operation,
24:35woman as audience reach for your quick
24:38understanding on in all these three
24:40films. I hope you will follow this.
24:42everything I have already spoken about.
24:45This is just a table for you to
24:46understand it better.
24:49Now there are other superstitious
24:52practices that are associated with
24:54feticide. If you look at the first image
24:56here uh on your screen, you see that a
25:00small infant is being dipped into milk.
25:04So after being born this infant is
25:07submerged in a pot of milk until she
25:10suffocates to death. In the second image
25:13and if it moves its head during the
25:16prayer a boy child will be born. Again
25:20the third superstition
25:22in chi sacrificing a girl child in the
25:25hope of a quality harvest. So you see
25:28there is a baby uh a small girl infant
25:30they are holding and they are throwing
25:32her into the well because they are the
25:34offering that making in the hope of a
25:36better or a quality harvest. So in these
25:39three films you will find this. Finally,
25:42when you uh see all these films, you
25:44come across the disclaimers that they
25:47can be disturbing because female
25:49infanticide and female feticide are
25:52amongst the most heinous crime that go
25:55largely unreported in India.
25:58I have already spoken about prenatal sex
26:01determination test which is being a
26:04punishable offense and according to
26:06ministry of health and family welfare
26:08and UNFPA in the last 100 years 35
26:13million girls are missing from the
26:15population of India due to the practice
26:18related to gender discrimination. So if
26:21you see these three disclaimers, this
26:24one is in chi, this j bha zordar and
26:27this is in matruhumi. A clear indication
26:31of the fact that this is something that
26:34has to be taken care of. If this can be
26:36disturbing on screen what it would be on
26:40society and there is where I will kind
26:42of come to the last slide four types of
26:46female performativity across the films.
26:48I've already discussed this but quickly
26:50recapitulate where you find in type one
26:54victims of epistemological violence
26:56where you see that the knowledge created
26:59around culture is actually uh inducing
27:04the sex selective practices. The type
27:08two where there is failed act of
27:10self-preservation which means that you
27:12know uh you are so conditioned to
27:14produce a male child that anything else
27:18looks like a deviation from that. The
27:22third is induced hostility. You find
27:24that in the case of Bano Dvi who's
27:27gatekeeping the tradition of maintaining
27:30or offering the girl infants for having
27:34the better harvest. And then of course
27:37we have uh women who spread
27:40consciousness and resistance. Just like
27:42in Chi you find that Sakshi not only
27:45imagines but also resist to the idea of
27:48any kind of uh offering that is being
27:52done in the hope of better harvest. Uh I
27:55think that is what I will speak in terms
27:58of abortion in Indian context. We move
28:00on to surrogacy and art in the next
28:03lectures. Thank you.