Editorial: The right way to cradle surrogacy

The reason is over 29,000 prospective parents have registered with Central Adoption Resources Authority. And there are just 2,317 children available for adoption. This shortage could pave the way for childless couples to explore options like surrogacy.

The Union Cabinet last month gave its nod for the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2020. This is being seen as a shot in the arm for the rights of surrogates, who for the longest time were vulnerable to exploitation and were offered no protection under law. The Bill also proposes to make surrogacy accessible to Indian-origin widows and divorcee women, apart from infertile Indian couples. Additions to the Bill include banning the practice commercially and permitting altruistic surrogacy.

The amendment was welcomed by stakeholders, who had criticised the draft legislation passed by the Lok Sabha in 2019. Back then, only a close relative could act as a surrogate to prospective parents. The modified Bill allows any willing woman to be a surrogate mother.

The amendment came at the right time as commercial surrogacy assumed gargantuan proportions in India. Commercial surrogacy has been legal here since 2002 as per guidelines of the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR). The practice has seen celebrities like Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, and recently Shilpa Shetty opting for such arrangements.

India has gained notoriety as a preferred destination for international surrogacy with the industry potential pegged at $1 bn annually.

Back in 2002, it made global headlines when a 3-month-old girl of Japanese origin (Baby Manjhi) born to an Indian surrogate mother was reunited with her biological father after spending the first months of her life in legal uncertainty, when her parents decided to divorce.

As per government data from 2012, almost 80 per cent of surrogate babies born in that year were commissioned by foreign couples.

When introduced in the Lok Sabha in 2019, the Bill provided for options that allowed a woman to act as a surrogate mother only once, thereby capping the loophole for commercial exploitation by putting up wombs for rent.

Last year, Nirmala Samant Prabhawalkar, former member, National Commission for Women said the bill has been brought to regulate the “uncontrolled” practice of surrogacy, but it still has some “grey areas.” The proposed set up of the National Surrogacy Board at the central level and, State Surrogacy Board would further grant legitimacy to what might fundamentally be a noble act, that has been misunderstood for long.