Premium
Documents that matter: Sterilization paperwork in rural India
Author(s) -
Lukšaitė Eva
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
anthropology today
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.419
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-8322
pISSN - 0268-540X
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8322.12752
Subject(s) - tubal ligation , sterilization (economics) , female sterilization , state (computer science) , law , family planning , political science , business , medicine , research methodology , population , environmental health , computer science , finance , algorithm , exchange rate , foreign exchange market
Female sterilization, or tubal ligation, is rural India's most prevalent form of contraception. The paperwork surrounding this procedure provides an interesting lens through which to investigate the state, its institutions and their material conditions. The production and circulation of this paperwork uncover the state as an illegible and unpredictable entity that materializes in people's everyday lives through bureaucratically futile certificates. In this article, the author looks at sterilization paperwork as a tool to tell stories about the state and its institutions as individual women seek and undergo tubal ligation in a government facility in rural India.