Surrogacy: Is India having a Regressive Approach towards it?

Surrogacy is a practice which enables a couple or an individual, unable to bear a child to experience parenthood. India is referred to as the hub of surrogacy. It is the most desired destination for those who want to undergo the procedure. There are two primary reasons for it. Each year numerous couples from abroad are attracted to India, firstly because the surro-gacy procedure here is cost effective. Secondly, the surrogates are easily available. The pre-vailing poverty and desire to earn money has made the business of surrogacy run well in the country. The so-called surrogacy agencies too, play an important role in this. They are the prime liaisons between the commissioning parents and the surrogates, throughout the surro-gacy procedure. However, with the recent developments in the Indian legislative front, there appears to be an attempt by the government to make commercial surrogacy illegal in India. A bill was passed in 2019 in Lok Sabha and is, at present, pending in Rajya Sabha, which aims at banning commercial surrogacy. This Paper mainly focuses on whether this legislative step of banning commercial surrogacy would be right for India. With briefly introducing what is surrogacy, the paper moves on to clarifying the meaning and concept of surrogacy. The paper also touches upon the aspect of surrogacy as seen in the ancient times. Thereafter, it discusses how the law relating to surrogacy emerged in India with various bills being proposed and judicial interpretations being done. The paper is concluded by putting forth the various points for criticism of The Surrogacy bill 2019 and some suggestions and recommendations for making the bill more inclusive.