ANAND, India, March 26: After giving birth to healthy twins, Mrs A, a young Indian woman, handed them to a US-based couple knowing she was unlikely to see them again.
– Her parents never knew what she was doing, her mother-in-law confides. – She told them she had a baby boy but he passed away, added she.
Mrs A, 27, is part of Indias most prolific family of surrogate mothers, something that although not unlawful has to be kept a secret in this conservative country.
Two sisters and their sister-in-law, Mrs A – all mothers with their own children – gave birth to babies last year and passed them to childless couples. Another sister is waiting her turn.
In return for this “noble cause” they earn more than 100,000 rupees (13.950 DKR) for each pregnancy, a comparatively huge sum since one of their working husbands earns about five dollar (31 DKR) a day.
It will pay for their childrens education and home renovations.
But it comes at a cost. For the sake of financial security, the life of Indias new breed of professional surrogate mothers means lies, secrecy and often nine months hiding from disapproving eyes.
Despite the disapproval in some quarters, the births have caused a social shift in the small town of Anand in western Gujarat province.
In the last two years, six women in the town, population 150.000, and surrounding villages have acted as surrogates, three of them for US-based Indian couples.
Two women are pregnant and seven more have been recruited, yet all are desperate to remain anonymous since many of their fellow villagers assume “immoral” acts must have taken place.
Many women in India are sterilised after having children, but willingness to help other couples and the money it can bring them is changing the attitudes of some.
– My first professional surrogates husband had lots of problems. They had huge debts then she heard this and said: “I do not mind doing it”, says Dr Nayana Patel, who runs the Akanksha infertility clinic and is mentor and protector of the women, addiong: – They had re-mortgaged their house but she got it back.
She says the programme is for the “upliftment” of Indian women and says the country can become a centre of “reproductive tourism”. The health industry is already slated to be worth 2,3 billion dollars by 2012 by performing cheap surgery for foreigners.
National guidelines
Patel says she has not received any complaints about the practice but has had many e-mails from the United States and Britain, including white couples, lured by the prospect of a surrogate child for some 225.000 rupees (5.060 dollars) compared with some 40.000 dollars in the US.
Overseas-based Indians are also comforted since the surrogate mother has the same cultural background and has few rights to the child once it is born, according to Patel.
Industry guidelines brought out last year to regulate the work of the countrys of the 250 or so IVF clinics estimated that up to 19 million couples in India were likely to be infertile. Hardly any of the clinics are involved in surrogacy work.
But with booming India creating new middle-class couples able to pay for fertility treatment, the demand for surrogates is increasing.
A high-profile case of a woman who gave birth to her own grandchildren on behalf of her UK-based daughter in 2004 was responsible for making this tobacco-growing area the surrogate centre of India.
There is no law in India surrounding surrogacy but national guidelines from 2005 are expected to be enshrined in legislation in the next few months, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
In addition to expenses, the guidelines state the “surrogate mother would also be entitled to a monetary compensation from the couple” to be decided during talks between the two parties.
But Dr. R.S. Sharma, deputy director general of the ICMR, said debate continued over how much surrogate mothers could receive as lawyers thrashed out the wording of legislation.
Hearing of the potential to earn relatively large sums has seen the odd inquiry from local women turn into daily visits from hard-pressed mothers.
There are childless couples to provide the demand. Patel says she has heard from a couple in the northern city of Lucknow who has been searching for 16 years for a professional surrogate.
Doctors in the western economic city of Mumbai have referred couples to her because they were unable to find suitable professional surrogates.
But some doctors have expressed disquiet because of the current lack of laws surrounding the practice. – The problem is that people are operating in a legal vacuum, says Dr Aniruddha Malpani, director of the Malpani Infertility Clinic.
He says that the rights of the surrogate mother over a baby she carries remained unclear and said he feared further difficulties because of the slow pace of Indian courts.
– Even if there was legal protection, if there was a legal dispute the child would be about 10 years old before it gets resolved, he says.
Any reservations from Mrs A-s family were swept away by the conviction of her ebullient mother-in-law, a former assistant in a hospital gynaecological unit.
She has helped deliver the three babies of her daughters and daughter-in-law in five months. – It was one after the other, I was kept very busy, she said at Patels clinic.
– This is the one occupation that gives you one lakh (100.000) rupees. A husband at a factory getting 1.000 rupees a month will not pay for household items and education for the children, she adds.
Some of the women move village during their pregnancy, others say they will hide away for nine months because of concerns of what the neighbours will say.
There is also the wrench of giving away a child they admit they will probably not see again.
Kilde: The Push Journal
