Planning Quechua Families: Indigenous Subjectivities, Inequalities & Kinship under the Peruvian Family Planning Programme (360G-Wellcome-203255_Z_16_Z)

This research will investigate how the Peruvian family planning (FP) programme is currently being implemented in an indigenous community, and the wider affects that this public health intervention may have on their family and community networks, as well as on a personal level. Anthropological literature describes how [bio] medical interventions can affect subjectivities and how people view their bodies, which can alter personal & community relationships sometimes to the detriment of the individual. In this study the results of enforced [bio] medical FP will be investigated to ascertain what affects, if any, the FP programme has on traditional kinship and community networks which the Quechua-indigenous rely upon in the Andes. This is also a political issue, as in the recent past (1990-2000) the Peruvian government used coercion to sterilize 200,000+ rural-indigenous people without consent, which was seen as a way of controlling the fertility of this ‘less-desirable’ sub-population. Today this group are once again being targeted for intervention. The project will investigate if there are any contemporary issues with lack of information, misinformation or discriminatory practise as before, by exploring how the programme is being delivered to indigenous communities. Key words: Reproductive health, Family planning, Contraception, Peru, Subjectivities, Kinship