Dr. Sheela Suryanarayanan, Associate Professor, Centre for Women’s Studies (CWS), School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad spoke to Dr. Hibino Yuri, an academic at Kanazawa University, Japan, on Surrogacy in India.
The link to the transcript in Japanese is given below:
https://hibino.w3.kanazawa-u.ac.jp/contents/uploads/2021/08/20210716_DrSheelaSaravanan-.pdf
Dr. Sheela Suryanarayanan
Dr Suryanarayanan, who had undertaken extensive fieldwork (2009-2019) on surrogacy in Gujarat, was asked about the Surrogacy Regulation Bill currently in the Indian Parliament, whose Parliamentary Report mentions her inputs.
Pointing to the potential loopholes, Dr Suryanarayanan, whose essays on the subject have appeared in Analize: Journal of Gender Studies and SwissFuture , spoke of the urgent need to set an upper age limit for surrogate motherhood, to encourage adoption over surrogacy and pay due attention to the economic aspects that cause women to offer themselves as surrogate mothers. She also described the slavery-like conditions of surrogate mothers and aspects such as religious preferences and race.
Dr Suryanarayanan, who has authored a book on Surrogacy Biomarkets from Springer, noted how surrogate mothers slowly withdraw themselves from this practice due to the high risks and inadequate economic returns. Many such women and their families, she found, desired a house of their own and better education for their children. Dr. Suryanarayanan was confident that commercial surrogacy will not return to India, Nepal, Malaysia or Thailand.