Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2020, its Social and Economic Impact and A Way Forward

Surrogacy is a burning issue in India because of the newly proposed legislation. A surrogate woman bears a child for another woman who is unable to conceive. She can be called the birth giver who, conceives the child, gestates, and delivers it on behalf of another woman who will be construed as the real mother after the child is born. Before 2015, India was a big hub for surrogacy and at that time, there were no laws regulating the same. It was because of the case of Baby Manji Yamada v. Union of India in 2008, that supered the Government to enact a law for regulating the surrogacy. With a surge in reports of exploitation of surrogate mothers, the unethical practices involved in it, and abandonment of children born out of surrogacy, the Government felt the need to prohibit commercial surrogacy and all the exploitation going on in the name of Surrogacy. The Surrogacy Bill 2020 was introduced in the year 2016 in the Lok Sabha after banning commercial surrogacy in 2015, which aims to achieve non-exploitation of surrogate mothers as well as children and regulates and instructs certain conditions to carry out surrogacy. This article presents a detailed analysis of The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2020. It focuses on the social and economic impact of the bill and the way forward for the shortcomings of the bill. It takes a lot of strength and courage to give away a child after bearing it for the full length of pregnancy. This is the beauty of humanity and we need more people with the heart of surrogates to make this world a happy place to live.