While surrogacy hit the headlines recently, thanks to actor Shahrukh Khan, a survey by the Centre for Social Research has found that about 60 per cent of surrogate mothers are kept in “shelter homes” and most are paid Rs 3-4 lakh per pregnancy.
The survey, conducted in Delhi and Mumbai, involved in each city 50 surrogate mothers and 25 couples who commissioned a surrogacy. It found the surrogate mothers are usually poor, illiterate women, often incapable of reading the surrogacy contract they sign, and exploited by doctors and fertility centres.
They are made to live in secrecy, in closely guarded rented “homes”, with limited access to their families. In Delhi, these “homes” are concentrated in places like Janakpuri and Tilak Nagar, said Manjari Mishra of CSR. One such “home” in Mumbai was a cramped one-room facility with five beds and CCTV cameras to monitor the women’s movements.
Agents who “recruit” the surrogate mothers get Rs 7,000-10,000 per candidate. The survey, supported by the women and child development ministry, has asked the Centre to discourage commercial surrogacy and put in place a legal framework to prevent exploitation.
Almost a fourth of the “commissioning parents”, who pay Rs 10-40 lakh for a surrogate child, admitted their preference for a son. About 22 per cent said they had opted for a sex determination test, and 2 per cent said they had the pregnancy medically terminated for “social reasons”.
Quoting the ICMR director, the survey claimed approximately 2,000 babies are born every year through commercial surrogacy, and cited CII figures that claim surrogacy is a $2.3 billion industry in India, because it is largely unregulated and cheaper. Clinics function in tight cliques, with unrelated centres like dental clinics sometimes assisting fertility clinics.
“There are many issues besides sex selection. There are countries that do not allow surrogacy; what would the nationality of the child be when the intended parents are from that country? About 40 per cent couples opting for surrogacy are foreigners,” said CSR director Ranjana Kumari.
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