Wombs for rent: Indian surrogacy clinic confines women in 'terrible conditions', say police

Thomson Reuters Foundation - Weekend police investigated illegal birth clinics in southern India and found 47 surrogacy mothers - they were deceived to borrow the uterus for money -

Trogana police raided Hyderabad's fertility treatment clinic on Saturday and found nearly all women from northeastern India.

Investigator B. Limba Reddy told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on Monday.

"They are primarily immigrants from states in the northeast, they are brought here by agents and are promised up to 400,000 rupees (about 6,000 US dollars)."

The clinic staff who asked not to give a name said that the facility is managed within the law and these women have not violated their wishes.

"They stay here is part of an agreement between parents and proxies (adoption)," he said.

The surrogate industry in India has been attacked by women's rights organizations. They said that these clinics were "infant factories" for rich people and the lack of regulation led to a contract between poor women and uneducated women.

Activists said the agency 's demand increased sharply after the Indian government drafted a bill banning billions of dollar commercial agency.

Prior to the prohibition of proxy, India is one of the few countries that can pay for other children through in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer.

Hari Ramasubramanian of the Center for Independent Authority Act, said, "Demand is currently very high, migrant workers from northeast are new to agents."

"It raises concerns about the information that the agent has and what they understand the risks included in the contract.

An official who asked not to give a name says Telangana 's Ministry of Health is investigating the background of his mother' s surrogate mothers, adding that these women are currently under the supervision of the department 's clinic.

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Surrogacy is a field full of moral and legal uncertainty. Critics believe that relatively wealthy foreigners can easily "borrow" the poor Indian womb, which creates the possibility of exploitation. The government proactively promotes India as a medical tourist destination, but some people think that changing money for a baby makes people unpleasant. "The agent will do better education, buy a house, start small businesses and do this to open a store," Dr. Kaddam said. "This may be the money they may have earned in three years, I do not really think this is exploiting women, I think two people will help each other."

Critics say that the prohibition of foreign proxy clients will not protect India's poor women or end this practice. On the other hand, the surrogate is still legal for Indian heterosexual couples. On the other hand, international representatives are notorious for their well designed solution. When the Ministry of Family of India suddenly prohibited the client of a gay foreign agent in 2012, the Indian fertility treatment clinic sent an Indian agent to the Nepal border. When Nepal also prohibited the cross-border representation in 2015, Thai industry officials told me they thought Indian agents were transformed into African countries. They also said that the ban would push this practice only underground.

She has read the news on the proposed surrogate bill, so she knows what she has to do now. The surrogate bill aims to end the rental problem in India. There are brokers like real estate agents, but these companies are looking for women with low privilege. And they borrowed the uterus for about a year. Women are healthier and cleaner, they become more expensive. If a surrogate bill is passed, it will prohibit the whole practice; only relatives can become proxies