Surrogates say the Centre’s bid to regulate the industry will affect them, as they depend on it to make more money than otherwise possible, and foreign couples pay well for the service

Living in a shanty in Wadala in Central Mumbai, Narmada Kaithya (33), supporting two children aged under 10 and a visually impaired mother-in-law, is a surrogate mother who has given birth to two boys for a couple in Canada.

She said, “I got to know about surrogacy from my sister-in-law who lives in Gujarat and has been a surrogate herself with the famous Akanksha Infertility Clinic. After my husband, who was with CRPF passed away in 2010, I had two children and a blind mother-in-law to look after. That is when my sister-in-law told me about surrogacy as a lucrative profession as she was paid Rs 6lakhs for a child by the couple who came from somewhere in Europe. Her husband put me on to a doctor here, who took care of the process and I had my first surrogate child in 2011 and then again in 2013.”

Highlighting the stigma attached with the profession Ms Kaithya said, “Initially my mother-in-law was strictly against it. But then my sister-in-law convinced her and made her understand that it was an easy way to make money and there was no harm is just delivering a baby.”

Paid Rs 6 lakh each for both her deliveries, Kaithya has sent her children to English medium schools and has also made a fixed deposit of Rs 3 lakh. Reacting to the government’s ban on allowing foreigners to come to India for surrogacy, Kaithya said, “Why can’t this government see us happy? Where was the government when my husband died and I had a family to look after? What difference does it make to the government if I am a mother for an Indian couple or a foreign couple?”

She adds, “Now there are so many ads, camps, clinics that undertake surrogacy that women are largely exploited. Clinics are not well equipped, the doctors don’t understand procedures, they play with the emotion and lives of the surrogate and commissioning parents.”

Dr Selvaraj also undertook the first foreign couple surrogacy. “It went off smoothly because the couple who came to me for surrogacy got their own surrogate from Sri Lanka. So we were not involved in any legal or financial aspect of the process,” she says. From 1994, Dr Selvaraja has given birth to 114 foreign surrogate children and the entire process takes about 2.5 lakhs for surrogacy.

Surrogacy demand growing

In last 21 years, surrogacy has grown into an industry with India emerging as its main hub. Says Benhur Samson, founder of Chicago-based Surrogacy Abroad which brings foreign couples seeking surrogates to India and has tie ups with fertility clinics, “There are about 1,400 clinics in India that offer the service to foreigners. The demand is increasing and it is a growing business. Working class couples of 40 years and above from African and European countries go for surrogacy services.”

Asked why India has become the preferred destination for foreign couples, Mr Samson says there are many Indian doctors in the US and the familiarity with Indians is one of the factors. “A medical visa for a US citizen costs $200 and the entire process of surrogacy comes for a price of up to $30,000 to $35,000,” he says

Third Party

Surrogacy agencies rely on NGOs who act as facilitators. Kathiravan Venkatachalam, who is Executive Director of Start India that started operations in June 2014, “We fill the gap between the doctors and the commissioning parents and take care of the rights, risks and issues related with surrogate mothers.”

Start India, has 12 surrogate mothers who are married and are sent to three hospitals for undertaking surrogacy. He said surrogate women often do not know their legal rights. “So we step in to have a basic contract in place so that the mothers know their rights,” he says.

Admitting that women are exploited, Mr Venkatachalam said he hoped that the proposed ART Bill will introduce the checks and balances involving surrogate mothers and intending parents. “For us it is about motherhood and not about its business,” he adds.