The growing multi-million dollar baby factory business in India as the most preferred destination for fertility tourism in the world is going to be regulated with the proposed Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2016 which has been cleared by Union Cabinet recently and to be introduced in Parliament soon.
The proposed new legislation will apply to the whole of India except Jammu and Kashmir after getting approval of the Parliament. There has been felt need for a legislation to deal with issues of surrogacy mother. The guideline by the Indian Council of Medical Research has made commercial surrogacy legal in India but there is no legislative support to it.
In 2015, the Government of India informed to the Supreme Court in an affidavit that it does not support commercial surrogacy and proposed new law will allow surrogacy only for Indian couples and not to foreigners. There are reports of a number of legal problems over the child and commissioning parents outside India and the two most popular cases from Australia and Japan were visible in the country.
Commercial surrogacy is banned in many countries such as Canada, Australia, UK, Germany, New Zealand Finland, France, Hungary, Nederland, Italy, Spain, Pakistan, Hong Kong etc. Taking over the advantage of relatively low cost medical facility with a favorable legal provisions and availability of illiterate poor women willing to become surrogate mother, India become the most preferred international destination for surrogacy. The commercial surrogacy has wider socio-economic impact over the people, especially on women of the country.
The proposed bill has created good response with its strong rejection of commercial surrogacy in India that has been exploiting poor and illiterate women in distress for financial benefits. It has put restriction on certain category of people such as married couple with biological and adopted kids, NRIs, People of Indian origin, overseas citizens of India, OCI cards holders, gays, live-ins, foreigners, single parent, and homosexuals not to go for surrogacy. The bill has allowed needy infertile childless couples who have been married for at least five years to avail surrogate motherhood. Childless and unmarried women are not allowed to be surrogate mothers.
The bill has legalized surrogacy for infertile couple with limitation on age and length of marriage. While denying payment to surrogate mothers, it has suggested preferring someone from among close relatives for this job. Surrogacy is allowed only in case of necessity not for luxury or fashion being exhibited by the celebrities. It has not allowed people having child for another one and limits the timing of surrogacy only for once. It has proposed a national regulatory body under the chairmanship of the Union Health Minister to monitor the hospitals offering surrogate service and the hospitals providing support should have to maintain records for 25 years after the birth of the child.
It is further said that provision of legal aid to surrogate mothers requiring for such help is there in the bill. The violation of law can attract 10 years of imprisonment. It is widely reported in media that India has been emerging as most attractive hub of surrogacy with annually about 2,000 births from 3,000 surrogacy clinics across the country. The surrogate baby business is estimated in thousands of cores of rupees in a poor country having high maternal mortality rate.
Commissioning parents come to India from countries where commercial surrogacy is banned or restricted and also cost-wise, it is cheaper in India. There are clinics in Anand, Surat, Jamnagar, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Indore, Raipur, Bilaspur and Sambalpur,Baragada, Cuttack and Bhubaneswar in Odisha. It is observed that a large number of couples from Britain, America and Russia are visiting the clinics in India that have engaged many people in the whole operation. The Gujarat State is the surrogacy capital of India and privately it is estimated that about 12,000 foreigners come to India each year to hire surrogates. The health and tourism sector together make profit out of it in a range of related business.
The poor women from rural village and slums in metropolis are becoming surrogacy mothers for rich people and foreigners and mostly they are exploited by doctors and middlemen involved in this business as racket of vested interest. It is reported that the surrogate mothers have to stay in hostels, shelter homes in alienation for about nine months to make available regular health monitoring by doctors. It has very negative impact over the psychology of surrogate mothers. They are not fully aware about the impact over their health as there were reports that many of them died without proper heathcare and post-delivery nourishment. These poor and uneducated women are forced out of poverty and economic compulsion to take up the job where the clinic and agents have taken a lion share of the business. It is found that mostly the women of poor socio-economic background are chosen for this job with payment. A study by Center for Social Research well reveals the socio-economic condition of surrogate mothers from Gujarat. It is said in the report that many women having natural capacity of reproduction are forced to use reproductive assistance techniques to become a surrogate mother.
The most important concern area is the social status of women in a patriarchal society and rights of women which have been always linked to the prevailing social and religious value system. It is reported that the woman who became surrogate mother were socially looked down by own children, husband and other family members .
So, most surrogate mothers keep their pregnancy a secret due to social taboos, relating to such kind of motherhood. The relationship among surrogate mothers and commissioning parents are not cordial as mostly the agents and doctors have to make the deal as the poor and illiterate women are in distress and need of money.
Studies found that there are no regulatory mechanism and provisions of compensation and insurance in post-delivery healthcare that affects the surrogate mother. The socio-psychological condition attached to pregnancy and the very concept of motherhood will be changed with commercial surrogacy.
Through this bill it is being expected that the exploitation of poor women becoming surrogate mothers will be restricted to a large extent with ban on commercial surrogacy. However, it is reported in media that surrogate mothers in Anand,Gujarat, protested against the ban on commercial surrogacy and instead suggested for more protection and regulation rather than a complete ban on it.
It is apprehended that a complete ban on commercial surrogacy will encourage underground activities like illegal organ trafficking which will make the condition of poor women more vulnerable. So it is expected that during the discussion over the bill, the new legislation may include more provisions in addressing the gaps in the existing draft. The people concerned over the issue, health professionals, women organisations and civil society groups, media, legislators and Parliamentarians should take the debate to people of the country.