Childless couples make a beeline for India

Poor women in the country readily become surrogate mothers

Delhi has become a preferred destination for couples from around the world who are looking for good and low-cost ways of having children. Lack of proper laws to govern surrogacy and a large population of economically poor and willing women has only added to the capital’s reputation as a surrogate hub.

Lesser number of Indian women smoking and consuming alcohol is another reason Indian surrogates are popular choice for foreigners. The numerous surrogacy clinics say they receive hundreds of enquiries every month about surrogacy from foreigners, with a lot of them turning into visits.

Till the new rule came into place early this year, which bars foreign gay couples or singles from using surrogate mothers for children, around 100 surrogacies for foreign couples have been performed in Delhi every month, says Dr Aanchal Agarwal, consultant of IVF at LBK Super Speciality Hospital.
“Since some sections of foreigners are now barred from seeking surrogacy in India, the number has seen a little decline of late,” she adds.

Though there are no exact figures regarding the number of surrogacy performed for foreign couples, health experts put it at 10 per cent of all surrogacies. NRIs form a large component of the remaining 90 per cent.

But foreigners have their own kinds of demands. Most of them necessarily want the surrogates to be housed in special guest houses during the period of pregnancy so that the health of the mother and fetus can be monitored.

“Pregnancy is a lot of responsibility and surrogates have to be monitored regularly. Foreign citizens do not want to take much trouble,” says a surrogacy agent who provides surrogate mothers to clinics and commissioning parents.

However, unlike many Indian and NRI parents, foreign couples don’t express a desire for surrogate mothers to be of a particular religion or caste. “All they need is the mother to be healthy, hygienic and with good physical features,” the agent says, adding that quite a few of them want twins.
They, however, keep a tab on the progress of the pregnancy by regularly viewing the surrogate’s pregnant woman (belly) through online video chats.

The special demands by foreigners are met by a higher price compared to what their Indian counterparts pay. “Our agency charges Rs 12.5 lakh from foreigners, compared to Rs 8.5 lakh that we ask from Indian parents. This difference also comes in because of foreign agents who take 20 per cent of the amount as commission for referring these parents to us,” says Rameez Khan (name changed), an agent with Ana Med Services, a surrogacy agency based in Delhi.