Hailey King and Dr. Charles Nuckolls, Department of Anthropology

As is the case with most research projects, I also had to make alterations to my project. Originally I was going to be researching with some contacts in New Zealand. Unfortunately, my contacts there had to postpone this project. I therefore, had to change my location and slightly alter the focus of my research. I was able to gain some connections in India, and lived with a wonderful host family in New Delhi for 90 days.

There has been previous research done on stigma in India, chiefly on how stigma affects infertile females. I wanted to focus my research more on the current impact stigma is making on family size in New Delhi. There are cultural expectations to have a family, yet Indian families are getting smaller, and I wanted to know why.

When I arrived in India and started delving into this research, the majority of people I came into contact with would talk with me about population size. This quickly became another area of focus with my project because I realized that most people I talked with believed that India is facing a population crisis. This belief combined with increasing instances of infertility, are perpetuating the current stigma phenomenon. The government is trying to combat this growth through setting up family planning clinics, making birth control more accessible and advertising to discourage people from having more than one or two children.

The methods I used in this research involved unstructured interviews, semi-structured interviews, observational sessions, and most importantly building rapport with the people. I started by building that rapport and trust with my host family. They were very generous in helping me get connected to doctors that they knew. These doctors allowed me to interview them. Eventually after a month and a half of gaining rapport with the doctors, the patients started to trust me and open up to me. I was able to case studies with 10 OBGYNS, 3 IVF specialists, 26 infertility patients, and 5 couples. My research was primarily done in hospitals and clinics in New Delhi and its surrounding suburbs, parts of Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab.

My theoretical framework for this project centered on works developed by Erving Goffman on stigma, as well as Mary Douglas’ theory on pollution. These connect very well into my research and understanding how stigma is affecting family size in New Delhi.

There were several problems that arose that I had to adapt to and work out. My host family wouldn’t allow me to leave the house during parts of the afternoon because it was so hot outside. That took time out of my research day, and I had to adjust my schedule to do research in the mornings and evenings. Due to the sensitive nature of my topic, interviews had to be tailored to what the patient was willing to share, as well as time constraints within the doctor’s office. I also figured out that the best approach was usually to use semi-structured interviews because each patient’s situation was so different. Other challenges I faced were the bugs. I was bit numerous times in my foot by mosquitoes, which led to an infection and fever. This took several days of recovery and time out of researching. The poverty situation in India took a lot of time adjusting to because many of those individuals in severe poverty would follow me around daily and beg for money. I had to learn how to deal with this in an appropriate manner. The language was challenging because many did not speak English and the translations were sometimes difficult or impossible. I did not go to my research area with a group of other students so the solitude was difficult at times because I felt like I didn’t really have people to relate to. Transportation was an interesting challenge as well. I had to learn how to barter with the rickshaw drivers, how to communicate in Hindi and learn all of the bus routes.

I truly felt that this project was a success because I was able to overcome practically all of my challenges. Thanks to my host family, I was able to gain access to the places I needed and I was able to gather good information. Not only was I able to overcome challenges but it truly impacted my life in a profound way and I will forever be grateful for this experience.

The failures of my project were that I was not able to get more interviews with non English speaking infertility patients and families. The areas that need further research or development in regards to how stigma impacts family size would be that we need more in depth interviews that include all castes. I was mainly only able to gain access to the middle class for interviews. I didn’t have an interpreter to help with the interviews of infertile lower class couples. Also, many of the perspectives I gained were from women. It would be wise to research more on current male perspectives of family size and infertility treatments.

My findings did yield some interesting discoveries. Stigma still exists in New Delhi, often only in the form of fear. It encompasses those who have too many children and those who have none. Many Indians talk about how the population size is too much. They believe that having fewer children is better. It is a major factor in pushing women in for infertility treatments. And these treatments are generally kept secret for fear of what other’s will say or do. Stigma is what plays in to the secrecy involved with using donor gametes. Using donor sperm or eggs in reproduction is only an acceptable practice so long as it is secret from everyone else. Pregnant girls out of wedlock abandon their children to avoid stigma. Many avoid adoption for fear of the stigma already attached to the child. It is this fear the keeps stigma alive. It is one of the driving forces behind their decisions about family size. Too many children could jeopardize a person’s status in the eyes of the community. Social pressures to maintain cultural expectations of family are working with cultural pressures to maintain status in this paradox. Having too many children can provoke stigma while having no children at all also creates conflict. This sample group confirmed that there is a link between family size, status, and stigma. Many fear that society will look down on them for perpetuating the ‘population crisis.’ Having too many children is becoming synonymous with being uneducated, illiterate, and lower caste. New Delhiites fear the effects of stigma, and desire to uphold societal family expectations in order to maintain social status.

I am currently in the process of refining a final draft of this research, which I plan to submit for publication. This research is current and the issues addressed contribute to our understanding of why family size is getting smaller. I plan submit this to the Anthropology Quarterly as well as other Medical Anthropology Journals. I was able to present my findings February 2012 at the Inquiry Conference held in the Kennedy Center at BYU. I have also done several presentations on this research to women’s club meetings held in Salt Lake City, Utah. I have been in touch with a family organization that is very interested in this research topic.