Dr. Sheela Suryanarayanan of the Centre for Women’s Studies at University of Hyderabad (UoH) is one of the experts consulted by the Honourable Rajya Sabha’s “Select Committee for the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill”. The pioneering Bill drafted by this Committee and presented to the Honourable Rajya Sabha, cites Dr. Suryanarayanan’s fieldwork on surrogacy conducted from 2009 to 2019.

Dr. Sheela Suryanarayanan

At the seventh meeting of the Committee, Dr Suryanarayanan’s recommendations were:

  • An upper age limit be set for surrogate motherhood
  • To encourage adoption over surrogacy
  • Pay due attention to the economic aspects that promote women to offer services as surrogate mothers.

She informed the Committee that there exist extraterritoriality laws in countries that have banned surrogacy.

The Constitution of Committee and Report may be found at https://prsindia.org/files/bills_acts/bills_parliament/Select%20Comm%20Report-%20Surrogacy%20Bill.pdf