Surveilled Wombs: A Study on Infertility, Technology and Politics of Reproduction in Select Indian Fiction

Abstract

Infertility in India is not only a biomedical phenomenon; it is a deeply social, cultural, and gendered crisis that transforms the female body into a site of surveillance and intervention. The growth of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), such as in vitro fertilisation and surrogacy, has entrenched the female body into the space of technological manipulation, bureaucratic surveillance, and transnational reproductive economies. This paper examines the way in which three modern Indian novels, The Mess in Her Womb (2022) by Dr. Chhavi Gandhi Juneja, Padma (2022) by Mala Mahesh, and A House for Happy Mothers (2016) by Amulya Malladi, portray infertility and technology-assisted reproduction as the place where female subjectivity is both regulated and refashioned. The analysis uses the ideas of the medical gaze and biopower developed by Michel Foucault to show that clinics, contractual relations, and diagnostic procedures transform women into docile reproductive subjects, which makes them measurable and manageable. The analysis identifies three dimensions which are interlinking: the role played by the clinic in transferring the intimate desire into the measurable data; the negotiation of the female body using technological apparatuses that offer hope yet strengthening control; and the tension of lived embodiment and the institutional motherhood. Ultimately, these novels demonstrate how literature humanises ART by foregrounding ambivalence, pain, and resilience, urging a shift from viewing infertility as a technical failure to recognising it as a narrative of survival, desire, and dignity.