New Delhi:
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the draft bill which aims to safeguard the rights of surrogate mothers and make parentage of such children legal. The draft Surrogacy Bill, 2016 aims at regulating commissioning of surrogacy in the country in a proper manner.
In the absence of any law to control commissioning of surrogacy, there have been cases of surrogacy pregnancies in several parts of the cuntry leading to possible exploitation of women.
[ALSO READ: Union Cabinet clears bill on surrogate motherhood]
Here are 10 points you should know about the surrogacy bill:
1. The Union Cabinet gave its green signal to the bill to be introduced in Parliament on Wednesday.
2. A Group of Ministers (GoM) had recently cleared the bill and had referred it to the Union Cabinet for a final call.
3. The GoM was constituted at the behest of the Prime Minister's Office.
4. Cabinet clears surrogacy regulation bill, 2016.
5. The Surrogacy bill bans commercial surrogacy.
6. Couple who are Indian residents, married for five years and with proven infertility will be allowed to hire services of surrogate.
7. Only close relatives of commissioning parents will be allowed to become a surrogate mother.
8. Currently there is no legislation for surrogacy in India.
9. Abandonment a child born out of surrogacy by commissioning parent will be punishable by Rs 10 lakh fine and 10yr jail.
10. To prevent exploitation of women, especially those in rural and tribal areas, the government has prohibited foreigners from commissioning surrogacy in the country and has drafted this comprehensive legislation.
Excerpts from Sushma Swaraj's press conference on Surrogacy bill:
# India has emerged as a surrogacy hub for couples & incidents reported on unethical practices.
# Bill to prohibit commercial surrogacy & allow ethical surrogacy to needy infertile couples.
# If you have a biological child, or an adopted child then altruistic surrogacy wont be allowed.
# Single parents, homosexual couples, live-in relationships couples will not be allowed altruistic surrogacy.
# You can say it (allowing surrogacy for homosexual couples) is looking forward and we can say this doesn't go with our ethos.
# Altruistic surrogacy will only be allowed for Indian citizens, not NRIs or OCI card holders.
# Big celebrities who not only have one but two children, a son and a daughter, even then they went ahead with surrogacy.
# National Surrogacy Board at central level, State Surrogacy Boards in State & UTs will be formed.
# This decided so that theres no different treatment for the 2 kids while they're being raised, or later to avoid fights over property.
(With PTI, ANI inputs)
