State Government is trying to be the first State to enact a legislation in the country to regulate surrogacy in the wake of several fertility clinics and hospitals exploiting the situation for commercial purposes, said Health Minister Laxma Reddy here on Thursday.
An expert committee headed by retired judge Justice Gopal Reddy has been constituted to submit a report and recommend guidelines. The Centre introduced a Surrogacy Bill in 2016 but it was not made into an Act and the State would come out with guidelines soon, he said in the Assembly during Question Hour. There are 71 registered fertility centres in the State including 27 in Hyderabad, 15 in Ranga Reddy under the PC&PNDT Act and they were being checked by district authorities, he said.
Responding to Congress members G. Chinna Reddy, N. Padmavathi Reddy, J. Geeta Reddy, T. Rammohan Reddy, who sought to know action initiated against some fertility centres that were treating surrogate mothers in inhuman conditions and running the concept as a commercial enterprise, the Minister said criminal case was filed against Sai Kiran Hospital in Banjara Hills for commercial surrogacy and investigation was on.
The surrogate mothers hailing from poor backgrounds and mostly from North Eastern States were paid ₹2.5 lakh to ₹3 lakh and the middlemen were making anywhere between ₹10 lakh to ₹30 lakh. These women gave birth to about 400 children through surrogacy in Sai Kiran Hospital alone, Mr. Chinna Reddy said.
Ms. Geeta Reddy said commercial surrogacy was billed as $ 2 billion enterprise in India and many foreign couples were coming here because of cheap rates. Padmaja Fertility Centre in Bhongir also had about 50 surrogate women. Exploiting the big vacuum in the legal framework, some hospitals were making surrogacy a commercial activitythe State should give priority for enacting a legislation on the lines of SC, ST Special Development Acts and the proposed Panchyat Raj Act, she said.
