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a hv Mu rd l U a GOJe& cetue: (Roots Upwards) An inter-disciplinary journal focusing on women and related issues Vol. 11 April 2018 Urdhva Mula 2018 vol. 11 Urdhva Mula (Roots Upwards) An Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies Journal The motto “UrdhvaMula” i.e. roots upwards. Two simple words, which can instil hope and courage when one is faced with various challenges of life. (from The Bhagavad Gita) 1 Urdhva Mula 2018 vol. 11 CONTENTS EDITORIAL ARTICLES Osteoporosis: Biochemistry & Frax® in a Nutshell 6 - Bhavna Daswani Care Extractivism and Care Struggles in 12 the Reconfiguration of Social Reproduction - Christa Wichterich Outsourcing Maternity? Women, Labour, and 34 Surrogacy - Aishwarya Chandran No Work Is Easy! Notes from the Field on 44 Unpaid Care Work for Women - Diya Dutta Women in Urban Formal and Informal Labour: 71 A Case of Garment Industry in Bengaluru - Karan Peer From Zari Work to Zero Work- Unravelling 96 the Crisis of the Invisible Crafts Women of the Zari Hub of Bauria Area of West Bengal. - Malinee Mukherjee Married Women in Urban Workforce in India: 118 Insights from NSSO Data - Jyoti Thakur 2 Urdhva Mula 2018 vol. 11 Exploring Livelihood & Support Strategies for 147 Unpaid Care Work by Indian Women - Celin Thomas and Abhishek Antony STATEMENTS Women’s and Child Rights Movement Condemning 165 Unequivocally ahe Recent Spate of Sexual Violence on Young Girls in Kathua and Unnao Support for the Lawyers of Asifa's Family: 174 Deepika Singh Rajawat and Talib Hussain Pavitri Manjhi 176 An Open Letter to Ms Maneka Sanjay Gandhi 177 An Open Letter to The Hon’ble President of India 180 Shri Kovind PUCL Statement in Solidarity with #MeToo 182 W20 Argentina 2018 Communiqué 185 BOOK REVIEW ‘Knowledge as Resistance’ written by Stevienna De Saille 189 - Prof. Medha Rajadhyaksha ABOUT AUTHORS List of Publications of Sophia Centre for Women’s Studies and Development ---------------- 3 Urdhva Mula 2018 vol. 11 EDITORIAL This last year has been full of turmoil regarding the #MeToo movement in the worlds of journalism, academia, literature, film, classical dance and music, corporate industry, the formal and informal sectors of the economy. Though the movement started in the industrialised world, it has had a cascading effect on all parts of the globe – developing nations, middle-income countries and rich nations. The year 2018 also marked a century of women’s suffrage for which the first generation of women’s rights activists had fought relentlessly, at the cost of great personal sacrifice in the face of tremendous patriarchal resistance. Though the suffragist movement began with a striving for adult franchise for women as a fundamental right of all citizens; it snowballed into a struggle for the rights of women as paid and unpaid workers. During the last century, in spite of sustained collective actions in several parts of the North and the South, discrimination against women in the world of work still persists due to caste/race/ethnicity/sexuality/gender-based segmentation in the labour market and non-recognition of the unpaid care economy. In the current issue of Urdhva Mula, we have focused on women’s heath, reproduction and work. In each of these areas, women have often been silent, unregarded and invisible, with few rights and little decision- making power. Nearly 85 % of women in the 45+ age group in India, irrespective of their class, caste, religious, educational backgrounds suffer from knee-joint pain. Dr. Bhavna Daswani’s article on Osteoporosis explains the debilitating effect of porous bones. While Christa Wichterich deconstructs surrogacy in the context of Germany, Aishwarya Chandran critically reflects on surrogacy in India. Dr. Diya Dutta’s field-based study examines Unpaid Care Work for Women. Mr. Karan Peer throws light on the situation of women in urban 4 Urdhva Mula 2018 vol. 11 formal and informal labour with a detailed analysis of the garment industry in Bengaluru. Malinee Mukherjee’s study of zari work unravels the crisis of the invisible craftswomen of the zari hub of the Bauria area in West Bengal. Jyoti Thakur’s insightful article on Married Women in Urban Workforce in India draws on data from the National Sample Survey Organisation. The co-authored article by Ms. Celin Thomas and Mr. Abhishek Antony delineates unpaid care work done by Indian women that remains un-recognised and invisible in the official discourse on work. Later in the issue, a poem by Chitra Lele poignantly articulates the housewife’s quest for dignity and personhood. This issue has also included important statements issued by women’s rights organisations. The review of Stevienna De Saille’s book Knowledge as Resistance written by Prof. Medha Rajadhyaksha has great significance so far as the interface between new reproductive technologies and the reproductive rights of women are concerned. We invite authors to send their research-based articles, book reviews, statements, poems, etc. for publication in this peer-reviewed and globally-circulated journal. Vibhuti Patel and Ananda Amritmahal ---------------- 5 Urdhva Mula 2018 vol. 11 ARTICLES OSTEOPOROSIS: BIOCHEMISTRY & FRAX® IN A NUTSHELL - Bhavna Daswani, PhD Osteoporosis literally means porous bones. It is a silent thief which robs a person’s bones making them fragile and prone to fractures. It is no secret that osteoporosis is more common in women than in men, and that too, in postmenopausal women. Menopause and estrogen aside, have we actually wondered why this gender bias? Don’t men have small amounts of estrogen and do they undergo andropause? What is the biochemical basis of osteoporosis? Last year, I was bestowed my doctoral degree in the biochemistry of osteoporosis and since then, I would catch hold of my friends and family explaining its pathophysiology in the most passionate and enthusiastic tone. Most would listen to my biology jargon on bone cells out of sheer politeness and some would gracefully change the subject with or without an element of subtlety. A standard response was ‘beta, you take your calcium and vitamin D supplements and a divine power takes care of the rest’. Then once it so happened at a dinner I asked “Do you know your FRAX® score?” as I remembered that I had done some research on FRAX® too. For the first time, I saw interested faces eager to know more. In a very excited mode, I started with describing the biochemistry of osteoporosis (which suddenly seemed fascinating to them), and then went on to explain FRAX®, and that is exactly the flow in this article too! To begin with, there are two types of osteoporosis (based on the cause), firstly primary osteoporosis which is subdivided into postmenopausal osteoporosis (due to menopause) and senile osteoporosis (due to aging beyond menopause); secondly, a rarer form called secondary osteoporosis (due to side effects of drugs such as glucocorticoids). 6 Urdhva Mula 2018 vol. 11 Although senile osteoporosis can affect both the sexes, let’s stop and wonder why there isn’t a category on postandropausal osteoporosis. Andropause, as we know, is a very gradual process compared to menopause, if at all it does exist in the first place. Besides, males reach higher ‘peak bone mass’ than females in their young age which is a strong predictor of osteoporosis later in life. To understand peak bone mass, we must understand the biochemical basis of the bone remodelling cycle. Bone is a complex dense tissue that consists of living cells embedded in a mineralized organic matrix. The adult bone is remodelled throughout life and in fact, we get an entirely new bone every 10 years or so. The purpose of bone turnover is to prevent accumulation of old bone, repair damage, and maintain calcium homeostasis. This process does not occur overnight; it occurs slowly in random microscopic areas throughout the bone. Remodelling means removing the old and replacing it with new, the job of two specialized cells in our bones called ‘osteoclasts’ and ‘osteoblasts’, respectively. In childhood, there is a steady increase in bone mass because there is an increase in number and activity of the bone making cells (osteoblasts) compared with the bone resorbing/removing cells (osteoclasts). This continues till the age of around 25 to 30 years wherein the bone mass remains stable because the osteoblasts and osteoclasts now work equally. This state is known as ‘peak bone mass’. Now, coming back to our earlier question, women ‘genetically’ achieve a lower ‘peak bone mass’ than men. This means that we have less bone treasure whilst young naturally predisposing us towards lower bone density later in life. It is also true that not all women achieve the same peak bone mass. This is governed by genetics again and also nutrition and lifestyle factors. All these together affect the interplay between osteoblasts and osteoclasts, which is the underlying cause of high or low bone density. Osteoporosis is by far the most common metabolic disorder of the skeleton arising from abnormalities of bone remodeling1. 7 Urdhva Mula 2018 vol. 11 As women reach their menopausal years, their ovaries start producing lesser amounts of the hormone estrogen, and finally menopause marks a dramatic decline of estrogen. This famous female hormone actually has bone nurturing effects and that is why it makes sense that osteoporosis can succeed menopause. Once more at this stage, genetics, nutrition and lifestyle factors play an important role. Osteoporosis is a polygenic disorder (many genes are involved) and identification of susceptibility genes has been the subject of extensive research2. Twin and family studies have shown that between 50% and 85% of the variance in peak BMD is genetically determined2. In fact, one of the most important determinants of bone loss in women is estrogen deficiency after menopause and twin studies have indicated that age at menopause is also genetically determined3.

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