Overview

Surrogacy is India’s new form of outsourcing, as couples from all over the world hire Indian women to bear their children for a fraction of the cost of surrogacy elsewhere with little to no government oversight or regulation. In the first detailed ethnography of India’s surrogacy industry, Amrita Pande visits clinics and hostels and speaks with surrogates and their families, clients, doctors, brokers, and hostel matrons in order to shed light on this burgeoning business and the experiences of the laborers within it. From recruitment to training to delivery, Pande’s research focuses on how reproduction meets production in surrogacy and how this reflects characteristics of India’s larger labor system. Pande’s interviews prove surrogates are more than victims of disciplinary power, and she examines the strategies they deploy to retain control over their bodies and reproductive futures. While some women are coerced into the business by their families, others negotiate with clients and their clinics to gain access to technologies and networks otherwise closed to them. As surrogates, the women Pande meets get to know and make the most of advanced medical discoveries. They traverse borders and straddle relationships that test the boundaries of race, class, religion, and nationality. Those who focus on the inherent inequalities of India’s surrogacy industry believe the practice should be either banned or strictly regulated. Pande instead advocates for a better understanding of this complex labor market, envisioning an international model of fair-trade surrogacy founded on openness and transparency in all business, medical, and emotional exchanges.

Full Product Details

9780231538183

Table of Contents

Reviews

A theoretically sophisticated and nuanced ethnography of interest to scholars in South Asian studies, women's studies, reproductive health, and labor studies.-- Choice At times heart-wrenching, Pande's ethnographic research provides a detailed and empathetic look at the business of India's surrogacy industry...-- Journal of International Womens Studies a fascinating look at the world of the Indian surrogate and the choice she makes in an effort to better her and her family's economic status.--Sarah Thomas Journal of International Women's Studies an excellent contribution to undergraduate or graduate classes on globalization, reproduction, gender, or work.--Anna Curtis Gender and Society Wombs in Labor is an important book that sheds light on the workings of transnational commercial surrogacy in India.... This book is a valuable read for anyone interested in commercial surrogacy, global inequality and women's labor.--Koh Sin Yee Asian Review of Books Wombs in Labor is foundational.--Rajani Bhatia Womens Review of Books Wombs in Labor is a valuable and timely contribution to the steadily increasing scholarship on assisted reproductive technologies and is a fascinating addition to the anthropology of work.-- Anthropology of Work Review Wombs in Labor is an absorbing and meticulously researched work. Amrita Pande fruitfully scrutinises the minutiae of interactions among surrogates and the community of a clinic for their underlying meaning... recommended to anyone interested in the subject of surrogacy and will please all readers.-- LSE Review of Books

A rich, nuanced analysis that recognizes these women's attempts to negotiate the challenges of class, gender, race, and citizenship. In analyzing both their actions and their accounts, Pande explores how Indian surrogates resist, reframe, and seek to build better lives for themselves and their families through their globalized labor.--Joya Misra, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Wombs in Labor is an important book that sheds light on the workings of transnational commercial surrogacy in India.... This book is a valuable read for anyone interested in commercial surrogacy, global inequality and women's labor.--Koh Sin Yee Asian Review of Books an excellent contribution to undergraduate or graduate classes on globalization, reproduction, gender, or work.--Anna Curtis Gender and Society a fascinating look at the world of the Indian surrogate and the choice she makes in an effort to better her and her family's economic status.--Sarah Thomas Journal of International Women's Studies Wombs in Labor is foundational.--Rajani Bhatia Womens Review of Books A rich, nuanced analysis that recognizes these women's attempts to negotiate the challenges of class, gender, race, and citizenship. In analyzing both their actions and their accounts, Pande explores how Indian surrogates resist, reframe, and seek to build better lives for themselves and their families through their globalized labor.--Joya Misra, University of Massachusetts, Amherst In this brave and unique study, Amrita Pande takes us with empathy and grace into the world of the Indian surrogate, asking how she feels about carrying a baby she must give up. Highly perceptive, deeply thoughtful, and analytically nuanced, Pande proposes new answers to a new question. An important book and a great read.--Arlie Hochschild, author of The Outsourced Self: What Happens When We Pay Others to Live Our Lives for Us An invaluable work. Pande writes vividly, sensitively, and with critical intelligence about an incredibly complex modern phenomenon. Her attentiveness to the diverse situations and personalities of surrogate mothers is her book's greatest strength. A gripping read.--Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University By allowing us a window into transnational surrogacy, Pande brilliantly provides a rich, nuanced analysis that recognizes the women's attempts to negotiate the challenges of class, gender, race, and citizenship that they face. In analyzing both their actions and their accounts, Pande explores how Indian surrogates resist, reframe, and seek to build better lives for themselves and their families through their globalized labor.--Joya Misra, University of Massachusetts In this brave and unique study of what is probably the world's largest commercial infertility clinic, Amrita Pande takes us with empathy and grace into the world of the Indian surrogate. How does she feel about carrying a baby she must give up? Highly perceptive, deeply thoughtful, and analytically nuanced, Pande proposes some new answers to a new question. An important book and a great read.--Arlie Hochschild, author of The Outsourced Self This is an invaluable work: an eye-opening, intimate ethnographic study of surrogacy at one successful clinic in India. Pande writes vividly, sensitively, and with critical intelligence about an incredibly complex modern phenomenon. Her attentiveness to the diverse situations and personalities of surrogate mothers is her book's greatest contribution; a gripping read.--Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University

Author Information

Amrita Pande is a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on the intersection of new technologies and reproductive labor, and her writings have appeared in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Gender and Society, Critical Social Policy, International Migration Review, Qualitative Sociology, Feminist Studies, the Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Reproductive BioMedicine, and in several edited volumes. She is also an educator-performer and is currently involved in a multimedia theater performance, Made in India: Notes from a Baby Farm, which is based on her ethnographic work on surrogacy.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available