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Important links on the background to the NDHM. After AADHAAR, CMS, NATGRID, this looks like the next big salvo from surveillance capitalism. https://twitter.com/grumpeoldman/status/1299368152237654016
This is so dangerous in so many ways. From my own work, I know how difficult it is for people to access sexual and reproductive health care in the best of circumstances. Imagine records of contraceptive prescriptions, abortions, etc being available for parents/spouse to see.(1/n) https://twitter.com/menakadoshi/status/1299783603195273217
Recording abortion details might conflict with confidentiality requirements under MTP Regulations. This is particularly brutal for adolescents. The age of consent for sex in India is 18. All underage sexual activity is a crime - whether the partners were willing or not. (2/n)
Recording sexual history will bring many more adolescents within the criminal law framework even for consensual sexual activity. This is especially so because POCSO has a universal mandatory reporting obligation. Section 19 requires that *anyone* who knows or apprehends that(3/n)
... any underage sexual activity has taken place or is likely to take place has to inform the police, on pain of 6 months imprisonment. This provision is already making it difficult for adolescents, especially women and transmen from accessing contraception and abortion... (4/n)
... when they don't want to get embroiled in the criminal justice system. Doctors sometimes avoid this obligation by not asking and recording the age of the patient. But imagine a permanent record of a person's age and sexual history - which the NDHM says it will capture (5/n)
As long as hetero patriarchal norms continue to govern sexual and reproductive lives, this kind of surveillance will amplify the legal risks, barriers to accessing SRHR, and the risk of violence from non-conformity to gender norms. (6/n)
Such health surveillance mechanisms that track reproductive health are already in place in many states, eg, PICME in Tamil Nadu and Mamata Cards in Gujarat. This @epw_in piece does a good job of describing the many issues with such policies
https://www.epw.in/engage/article/data-infrastructures-inequities-why-does-reproductive-health-surveillance-india-need-urgent-attention
(7/n)
https://www.epw.in/engage/article/data-infrastructures-inequities-why-does-reproductive-health-surveillance-india-need-urgent-attention
(7/n)
And in this piece for @epw_in I discussed some of the privacy implications of such schemes and laws
https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/51/privacy-after-puttaswamy-judgment/privacy-and-womens-rights.html
(n/n)
https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/51/privacy-after-puttaswamy-judgment/privacy-and-womens-rights.html
(n/n)
