The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2020, which allows any "willing" woman to be a surrogate mother and proposes that widows and divorced women can also benefit from its provisions, besides infertile Indian couples.
Briefing media, Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Prakash Javadekar said that this bill incorporated all recommendations made by the Rajya Sabha select committee, which studied an earlier version of the draft legislation, and is aimed at banning commercial surrogacy and allowing altruistic surrogacy.
Irani said the bill proposes that only Indian couples, with both partners being of Indian origins, can opt for surrogacy in the country. She asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led from the
front with a liberal view on the issues of reproductive rights of women, be it medical termination of pregnancy, the Assisted Reproductive Technology Regulation Bill or the surrogacy bill. The amended bill is reformed version of the draft legislation which was passed by Lok Sabha in August 2019 but its provisions, including that only a close relative of a couple can be a surrogate mother, had invited criticism.
The Government then agreed to send the bill to a Rajya Sabha Select Committee, which is headed by BJP MP Bhupender Yadav, for holding wide consultations with various stakeholders and making recommendations. Bill will be tabled in the forthcoming Session, starts from March 2.
Cabinet also approved setting up of a National Technical Textiles Mission with a total outlay of Rs 1,480 crore with a view to position the country as a global leader in technical textiles. The Mission will have a four year implementation period from financial year 2020-21 to 2023-24. Irani said arrangements have been made under the Mission for skill development of 50,000 people in the field of technical textiles.
"We have mandated use of technical textiles in 9 ministries and 92 products and our hope is that with convergence of efforts with the technology group we will see a new future for especially MSME and technologists in the field of technical textiles, thereby making India self sufficient specially in strategic fields like defence and aerospace," she said.
The Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi also approved bill to grant institution of national importance status to National Institutes of Food Technology at Kundli in Haryana and Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu.