Center and Partners Launch Fact Sheet on Adolescents’ Access to Abortion in India
Watch a replay of the virtual event.
The Center for Reproductive Rights and its partners launched a new fact sheet, The POCSO Act and Adolescents’ Access to Abortion in India: Heightened Vulnerabilities, Health Risks and Impact on their Rights, at a virtual event.
The event, held November 30, 2022, featured several prominent participants, including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) experts, civil society actors, and government officials.
>> Watch the event replay here.
The fact sheet explains the legal framework currently governing abortion services and adolescent sexuality in India—and demonstrates the chilling effect of this legal framework on adolescents’ access to safe and legal abortion services. The publication was created in partnership with the Law and Marginalisation Clinic; Centre for Justice, Law and Society at Jindal Global Law School; CommonHealth; YP Foundation; and Hidden Pockets.
Participants at the launch event addressed a range of topics related to adolescents’ SRHR access in India.
Speakers included:
- Brototi Dutta, the Center’s Senior Advocacy Adviser for India, delivered introductory remarks highlighting how, despite changes being made to the MTP Act, adolescents remain vulnerable and their access to abortion remains difficult and constrained.
- Dr. Alka Barua, Pediatrician and Member, Programme Implementation Committee, CommonHealth, pointed to the carceral and stringent framework of the POCSO Act and discussed how it adversely impacts adolescents’ abortion access.
- Krishanu, former SAFE Fellow at the YP Foundation and the session’s moderator, noted how adolescents’ and young people’s access to health care and abortion is often overlooked.
- Zoya Rizvi, Deputy Commissioner, Adolescent Health, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, noted the information gap impacting adolescents’ knowledge around sexuality, access to services and even basic menstrual hygiene.
- Ragini Bordoloi, Founder, My Vagina My Rights, noted how a failure to include young voices in policymaking can lead to the creation of laws and policies that are not informed by lived experience and adopt an alarmist, prescriptive tone.
- Biraja Mishra, Researcher and Trainer, Gender and Sexuality, Nirantar Trust, spoke of how access to the public health care system is dependent on normative gender and sexuality expression—meaning trans and queer community members are discriminated against and do not have equitable access to health care.
The Center’s Asia team works to engage audiences to improve awareness and expertise of sexual and reproductive rights issues and to enhance the realization of those rights in the region.