Will India’s surrogacy ban drive childless couples and poor women underground?
- Commercial surrogacy has been viewed as a win-win by couples struggling to conceive and women looking to escape poverty, even as exploitation was rife in the industry
- But whether an outright ban will work remains to be seen, with observers fearing desperate parties will turn to an underground market, leaving poor women even more vulnerable
Gita Parmal, 35, is due to give birth this October – an emotional occasion for both her and a couple who has been dreaming of a child for years.
As a surrogate mother, she will be paid a “life-changing” sum of 600,000 rupees (US$8,000) to carry their baby, money that will go towards her two children’s education and a new home.
“Women like me can never earn the money it takes to build a small house,” says Parmal, who is from India’s western state of Gujarat. “Not in a whole lifetime.”
Parmal is one of the last women in India to legally carry babies for a fee. Following the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act passed in December, commercial surrogacy has been outlawed. Only altruistic surrogacy, where a relative carries a baby for a childless couple, is now allowed.
Surrogacy refers to the procedure in which an embryo, created from a woman’s egg fertilised by a sperm in a lab, is implanted into the uterus of another woman who carries the baby to term before handing it back to the expectant couple.
India’s surrogacy industry took off around 2010, as demand for the procedure grew internationally, prompting one media outlet to call the country “the world’s baby factory” due to its affordable prices.
In a country where having a family is viewed as the most important part of life, many Indians who struggled with conceiving also turned to surrogacy to fulfill their wishes to have children.