Volume 35, Numbers 1 and 2, March and September - Special Issue on
Women, HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Sponsored by UNESCO, New Delhi.

Women, AIDS and Maternity in India –
A Critical Perspective of Biomedical and Popular Categories
Patrice Cohen

This paper brings out a working framework on the social representations brought by the international categorisations of MTCT and its prevention and by their application and adaptation in the Indian society. The transmission of the HIV/AIDS from the mother to the child (MTCT) is now a priority of public health worldwide as it is in India because of the increasing number of infected women. Anthropologists have pointed out that the medical and political management of the infection has social consequences and interactions. The paper explores the Indian situation through the production of the ambiguous social representations of the women for the transmission of HIV/AIDS: from status of the transmitter of the virus to the one of the protector of the child. The role of the categorisation of MTCT has been analysed by questioning the consequences of the labelling of this type of transmission that appears as very specific one considering the other ones (by sexuality, by blood transmission). This category brings out an overestimated role of the women considered as transmitter in considering the real situation of the transmission of the virus through the three identified route: pregnancy, delivery and breast-feeding. This category focuses on the responsibility of the women for the infection of their children and also for the prevention. The different stages of this policy have been analysed through the consequences in the building of representations of women and mother.

Key Words: Biomedical categories, Women, AIDS, Maternity, Policies.

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