India has emerged as a hub for surrogacy, with Delhi alone reporting more than 2,000 cases annually. The figure for Mumbai would not be less, stated Dr Ranjana Kumari releasing a study “Surrogacy Motherhood: Ethical or Commercial?” undertaken by the Centre for Social Research.
But unlike the myth that this is multi- billion dollar industry is being driven by foreigners, 60 per cent of parents who opt for surrogacy are Indians while 40 per cent are NRIs and foreigners.
“The commissioning parents pay anything between `40-45 lakh for a surrogate baby, but the surrogate mothers receive barely `2-3 lakh,” Dr Kumari said.
According to the study, 46 per cent of respondents in Delhi and 44 per cent in Mumbai said they received `3-4 lakh for surrogacy while 42 per cent in Mumbai and 22 per cent in Delhi received `2-4 lakh.
This works out to only one to two per cent of what the commissioning parents have paid with the maximum chunk of the money being cornered by the medical doctors fraternity and touts.
Both cities, have over 20 agencies run by “agents” that help facilitate arrangements, including housing the mothers in undisclosed shelter homes, as they do not want to disclose their pregnancy to their neighbours for fear of social stigma.
In fact, 74 per cent of the women interviewed claim these agents had been their primary source of information. Surrogate mothers are mainly in the 26-30 age group and have had their own children. This is a prerequisite for infertility physicians engaged in surrogacy.
The result is that the health and nutritional needs for most surrogate mothers are being properly cared for.
“We have seen cases where they have billed the commissioning parents for articles like health drinks but the woman had not seen a health drink,” said Ms Manasi Mishra, who headed the CSR team.
“If the woman has a miscarriage or has some health issues after the delivery, she will not be taken care of,” Ms Mishra added.
“Surrogacy has burgeoned into a $2.3 billion industry but unfortunately there is no law on surrogacy. The result is we don’t know whether it is legal or not especially in the light of the unregulated commercial nature it has acquired,” Dr Ranjana Kumari added.