The chaos of traveling to interview sites by way of Delhi streets
Courtney Henderson
Government-sponsored family planning has been subject to intense human rights debates. Paradoxically, some of the groups who have been most vocal in supporting a woman’s right to make informed autonomous decisions about childbearing have also opposed access to some long-term methods of contraception. In India, the issue of injectable contraceptives has been highly contested, with some groups advocating for the inclusion of injectable contraceptives in the Indian Government’s National Family Planning Program, and other groups opposing such an action. There is little research documenting the reasons for support and opposition to this particular contraceptive technology; nor is there research on the role that different stakeholder groups play in shaping access to this method. The research that Courtney conducted this past summer sought to directly address this gap. In order to adequately capture a diverse range of perspectives on the topic of injectable contraceptives, these stakeholder groups included Indian organizations (including those working on policy, programming, or both), international non-governmental organizations, and Indian feminist and rights groups.