Unwinding the ‘biological clock’

Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H) will undertake a study on the ways in which ageing is conceptualised within In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF), researching on elderly couples conceiving and giving birth in North India with the help of IVF.

The project has been sanctioned a funding of ₹25 lakh under the Wellcome UK Small Projects Grant for 2018 (https://wellcome.ac.uk/) and is titled: A Preliminary Study of Ageing and Assisted Reproduction in India.

The project will commence in April 2018 and includes fieldwork, a conference on ‘Reframing the Biological Clock: Exploring Ethnographic Research on Ageing and Reproduction’ in August 2018, with presentations from academics across the world. The conference will focus on ongoing research on aspects of the ageing reproductive body and how technology and society imagine childbirth and families in such a context. Research from Europe, USA and Asia will be presented at the conference, which will be hosted by IIT Hyderabad.

Speaking about the project, Dr. Anindita Majumdar, Assistant Professor, Department of Liberal Arts, IITH, who will be leading the research, said, “ The aim of the research is to contribute conceptually and through field data to ongoing, and future research on assisted conception, infertility and reproduction in India. This would include publications emerging from research, and the development of a larger research project that will look at the impact that societal and environmental factors have on increasing fears of declining fertility in urban India.”

This research firmly embedded in emerging issues of the ‘biological clock’, and declining fertility which has long-term significance on demographic and population trends, as well as on the social care and responsibility of an ageing population.