Dear Editor,
It will be good to remember that commercial surrogacy is a $138 million industry in India. Every year, large numbers of foreigners from around the developed world flock to India to avail of a cheap, hassle-free and legal route to parenthood.
Women rights activists have long demanded concrete steps to regulate this sector like registering surrogate mothers, fixing compensation and eliminating the middleman. In the absence of proper legislation, there have been instances of surrogate children getting entangled in legal troubles or being abandoned. Therefore, a surrogacy law was needed.
But the proposed surrogacy Bill has laid down parameters that are unnecessarily restrictive – the proposal cleared by the Union Cabinet debars single persons and those who are already parents from having a surrogate child. This is supposedly in keeping with ‘Indian ethos’. Does this mean that the ‘Indian ethos’ – as defined by BJP Government at the Centre – does not have space for single persons or divorcees?
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who has been at the forefront of this initiative, has also appealed to “Ma, Bhabhi, Mausi, Mami (mother, sister-in-law and aunts)” to carry the child of their childless relative with no expectation of monetary incentives. Such a familial environment may not be easy to find in the age of nuclear families.
Padmini Raghavendra
Via-e-mail