Sarojini Nadimpally, Deepa Venkatachalam | Special Issue: Gender and Commercialisation of Health Care | Guest editor: Bijoya Roy | Indian Journal of Gender Studies | Volume 23 Number 1 | 2016
The growth of the huge privatised infertility care industry in India can be attributed to a culture loaded with stereotypically defined gender roles, which defines childlessness as ‘abnormal’ and stigmatises infertility, as well as to the lack of infertility care in the public health system. The private infertility care market capitalises on existing patriarchal normative cultural norms and values. The proliferation of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) is one of the best examples of a response to the demands of the market—in this case, state-of-the-art facilities for women to become mothers. The ARTs industry in India, including surrogacy, has attracted an increasing cross-border movement, leading to the need to analyse the different stakeholders’ involvement in it as well as regulation of the industry.