Cabinet clears draft bill on surrogacy

New Delhi, Aug 24: A draft bill which aims to safeguard the rights of surrogate mothers and make parentage of such children legal, was cleared by the Union Cabinet, on Wednesday.

“Cabinet clears bill on surrogacy,” reported PTI.

According to the Health Ministry proposal, the draft Surrogacy Bill, 2016 aims at regulating commissioning surrogacy in the country in a proper manner.

The draft has already been cleared by Group of Ministers (GoM) after consideration. The GoM was constituted at the behest of the Prime Minister’s Office.

Apart from Health Minister J P Nadda, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, were among those part of the GoM.

The government had recently admitted that in the absence of a statutory mechanism to control commissioning of surrogacy at present, there have been cases of pregnancies by way of surrogacy, including in rural and tribal areas, leading to possible exploitation of women by unscrupulous elements.

The draft bill suggests carving out provisions in the law to make parentage of such children “legal and transparent”. It also plans to make the option of surrogacy unavailable to unmarried couples and those who already have adopted children as well as to foreigners choosing to opt for surrogates in India.

The government had recently said in Parliament that provisions are being made in the draft Bill to make parentage of children born out of surrogacy ‘legal and transparent”

In the absence of a statutory mechanism to regulate commissioning of surrogacy, there are several cases of exploitation of women, mainly in the rural areas and among vulnerable women. Through the bill, the government is trying to bring in a legal mechanism and transparency, while also regulating commercial surrogacy of women for monetary benefits.

(With agency inputs)