Contradictory discourses, state ideology and policy interpretation: A feminist evaluation of the Reproductive and Child Health Programme (RCH) in Kerala, India
type: CreativeWork
description: The Government of India in 1995 introduced the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) policy, as part of a paradigmatic shift in its ongoing population programme. The shift in policy came in the wake of the International Conference for Population and Development, 1994, which had espoused a rhetoric of reproductive health and empowerment for women in the planning and implementation of population programmes. This thesis explores the process of institutionalization of the ‘gender-sensitive’ discourse of reproductive health within the national population programme in India. This study offers a feminist political analysis of this phenomena; therefore, rather than study reproductive health as demographic or health outcomes, the emphasis is on the analysis of ideological frameworks of the state (and those policy makers who embody its values) that provide particular interpretations of reproductive health. The political analysis of ideology is significant to understanding the translation of global discourses into norms of local practice. The focus on interpretive frameworks opens up a theoretical exploration of the state’s inherent ideologies. Arguing that India, like many other countries in both the developing and developed world, is moving to a broad political, economic and social ethos of neo-liberalism, I explore the implications of this ideological shift for the process of policy interpretation. There are two dimensions of the neo-liberal ideology that are pertinent to this research. First, the assumptions of the role and functions of the state under neo-liberalism is antagonistic to that which is, prima facie, demanded by reproductive health as a gender-empowering discourse. Second, the discourse of neo-liberalism has implications for women’s positioning as citizens within the developmental state, challenging their claims to access the state. The interactions of both these dimensions, that is, contestation of discourses regarding representation of women, and the definitio…
abstract: The Government of India in 1995 introduced the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) policy, as part of a paradigmatic shift in its ongoing population programme. The shift in policy came in the wake of the International Conference for Population and Development, 1994, which had espoused a rhetoric of reproductive health and empowerment for women in the planning and implementation of population programmes. This thesis explores the process of institutionalization of the ‘gender-sensitive’ discourse of reproductive health within the national population programme in India. This study offers a feminist political analysis of this phenomena; therefore, rather than study reproductive health as demographic or health outcomes, the emphasis is on the analysis of ideological frameworks of the state (and those policy makers who embody its values) that provide particular interpretations of reproductive health. The political analysis of ideology is significant to understanding the translation of global discourses into norms of local practice. The focus on interpretive frameworks opens up a theoretical exploration of the state’s inherent ideologies. Arguing that India, like many other countries in both the developing and developed world, is moving to a broad political, economic and social ethos of neo-liberalism, I explore the implications of this ideological shift for the process of policy interpretation. There are two dimensions of the neo-liberal ideology that are pertinent to this research. First, the assumptions of the role and functions of the state under neo-liberalism is antagonistic to that which is, prima facie, demanded by reproductive health as a gender-empowering discourse. Second, the discourse of neo-liberalism has implications for women’s positioning as citizens within the developmental state, challenging their claims to access the state. The interactions of both these dimensions, that is, contestation of discourses regarding representation of women, and the definitio…
author: Simon-Kumar, Rachel
license: https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/68755034-3cd1-4bf5-a687-c1dd393f1206/download
date published: 2000
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:57:46Z
provider: University Waikato
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: The University of Waikato