India has approximately 2000 fertility clinics that enable willing women to earn money through surrogacy – a process famously described as “renting a womb”.
The lack of regulation in the field of surrogacy has led to industrial-level growth; an unrestrained boom.
The rise in the number of volunteering women, generally from economically weak families, is directly proportional to the size of the growth of the industry. The Quint spoke to one such surrogate mother and a couple struggling for a child for 32 years.
An Australian couple abandoned child born out of surrogacy in India in December 2012. The incident made waves in the news and brought the country’s attention to the lesser-known world of “rented wombs” of Indian women.
The public attention brought even more gruesome cases to light. The government took note of ones that emerged – an abandoned child, a dead surrogate mother, an undecided surrogate mother, complaints about less or non-payment to the mother.
Union Minister Sushma Swaraj announced the cabinet decision to clear the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 that will prohibit commercial surrogacy in the country.
The Bill originated from the Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) Bill and was drafted by the Secretary of the Department of the Health Research Department, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Joint Secretary Manoj Pant and a scientist named Dr Kavita Rajshekar.
The draft was posted on the website of the department and was open for suggestions, Kavita from the Health Research Department claimed. Joint Secretary Pant claimed that 18 ministries and 22 states responded to the draft and provided input.
Besides the governments, 40 other organisations also provided inputs to the draft of the Bill before it was sent to a group of ministers constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While all these efforts by the government are welcomed in the form of regulation, has anyone asked these women, who volunteered to rent their wombs, what they need?
Cameraperson: Sanjoy Deb
Video Editor: Kunal Mehra
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