IIT students to conduct study on reframing 'biological clock'

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The students of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Hyderabad are going to conduct a research on whether technologies like IVF are helping in reframing the "biological clock" and giving mothers more time to conceive.

The project, titled "A Preliminary Study of Ageing and Assisted Reproduction in India", has been sanctioned a funding of Rs 25 lakh under the Wellcome UK Small Projects Grant for 2018.

The researchers are going to undertake a study on the ways in which ageing is conceptualised through In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) by researching on elderly couples conceiving and giving birth to children in north India with the help of the technology.

"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 will 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 the increasing fears of declining fertility in urban India," Anindita Majumdar, Assistant Professor at IIT Hyderabad who will be leading the group of researchers, said.

The research firmly embeds itself within the emerging issues of "biological clock" and declining fertility, which have a long-term significance on demographic and population trends as well as on the social care and responsibilities of an ageing population.

The project will commence in April and include fieldwork and a conference on "Reframing the Biological Clock: Exploring Ethnographic Research on Ageing and Reproduction" in August with presentations from academics across the world.

The conference will focus on ongoing research on the aspects of ageing reproductive body and how technology and society imagine childbirth and families in such a context.