Abstract

This paper identifies family planning as a key arena of women’s movement activity during the 1950s and early 1960s. Focusing on the All India Women’s Conference (AIWC) and the Family Planning Association of India (FPAI), I argue that organised women helped to make family planning a component of national planning for development. While they joined other policymakers to promote the idea that controlling population was necessary for the new nation’s economic progress, the AIWC and FPAI also made a distinct case for family planning as a part of national development that was conducted by women, for women. In doing so, they created a new terrain of public activity for middle-class family planners, who claimed to mediate between ordinary women and national development goals. However, the women targeted for family planning services did not always acquiesce to this nation-building logic, and sometimes offered alternative interpretations of their reproduction. The result was often a tense negotiation between the family planners who claimed to speak for women, and the women who refused their claims.

摘要

本文将计划生育确定为 1950 年代和 1960 年代初期妇女运动活动的一个重要领域。以全印度妇女大会 (AIWC) 和印度计划生育协会 (FPAI) 为重点，我认为有组织的妇女有助于使计划生育成为国家发展计划的组成部分。在他们与其他决策者一起宣传控制人口对于新国家的经济进步必不可少的想法的同时，AIWC 和 FPAI 也提出了一个独特的案例，将计划生育作为国家发展的一部分，由妇女为妇女进行。在这样做的过程中，他们为中产阶级计划生育创造了一个新的公共活动领域，他们声称要在普通妇女和国家发展目标之间进行调解。然而，计划生育服务的目标妇女并不总是默认这种国家建设逻辑，有时会对其生育提出其他解释。结果往往是声称为女性代言的计划生育者与拒绝其主张的女性之间的紧张谈判。