India Today Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie on surrogacy
This week, the magazine gives you a break from the hurly-burly of
politics which seems more of the same-the disruptions in Parliament, the
careening economy, the tumbling rupee, the electoral posturing and
sop-giving. We tell a very human story up close and personal from the
bustling town of Anand. A town, halfway between Ahmedabad and Vadodara
in the heart of central Gujarat, which has long been synonymous with
India's cooperative milk industry. It houses the head office of the
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, whose brand Amul
sparked the White Revolution and continues to give India some of its
most creative advertising through a chubby little 'butter girl' in a
polka-dotted dress.
But Anand is now home to a different kind of cooperative cottage
industry. It is fast emerging as an international destination for
surrogate babies, and has so far provided childless parents from India
and 34 other countries a chance to fulfil their aspirations. On August
5, a 28-year-old woman, now known as Surrogate No. 500, gave birth to a
baby girl at Anand's Sat Kaival Hospital and Akanksha Infertility
Clinic, inadvertently becoming a milestone that has come to define what
the surrogacy boom is doing for women from the region. A single mother
of two sons aged five and three, she earned Rs.2,000 a month doing housework. Being a surrogate for a couple from Lucknow has given her Rs.3 lakh now. "I can build my own house now," she says. Anand houses several others like her.
New Delhi (Vidya Krishnan/Mint) : India’s long-awaited surrogacy Bill
will disqualify homosexual couples, foreign single individuals and
couples in live-in relationships from having children through surrogate
mothers in India. The law also imposes age restrictions on surrogate
mothers.
Critics said the strict norms of the proposed ART Bill
will see the activity moving to more conducive destinations such as
Thailand. Surrogacy is a method of reproduction where a woman—the
surrogate—agrees to carry a pregnancy to term for a fee.
In January, the home ministry had barred homosexuals and foreign single individuals.
“I do not understand why the law has to be discriminatory
towards unmarried foreigners when unmarried Indians are allowed this
facility,” said Ritu Bakshi, chairperson of the International Fertility Centre in Delhi.
“It is fair to expect that surrogacy should be allowed in
the country of the commissioning couple because citizenship of the
child becomes an issue otherwise. Other than this, many restrictions
imposed are not encouraging for business. A majority of our clients are
from foreign countries. To expect this sector to not have commercial
interest is naïve. Surrogacy is very expensive across the world,” she
added.