India had become a transnational surrogacy market with mushrooming In-vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinics and surrogacy hostels all over the country. The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021 prohibits commercial surrogacy in India after reports of deaths of surrogate mothers and egg donors, trafficking and exploitation of women and children, children stranded and abandoned, and rampant unethical practices. Taking poverty as the primary analytical axis, Dr. Suryanarayanan examined the impact of surrogacy on 45 surrogate mothers in India. This racialized body market treats women’s ‘body space’ as ‘risky’, ‘polluting’ and discardable’.
Dr. Suryanarayanan’s study revealed that the poorest remained in abject poverty, while the land/house-owners became richer post-surrogacy. Loans taken by ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ households increased post- surrogacy.
About Dr. Sheela Suryanarayanan
Dr. Sheela Suryanarayanan, Associate Professor, Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Hyderabad. She (Saravanan) has a multidisciplinary educational background with a Master's in Geography and development planning from India, a Ph.D. in Public Health from Australia, and two post-doctorates from the University of Heidelberg and Gottingen University, Germany before joining Hyderabad University as Associate Professor.
She teaches 'Women and Health, Women, Ecology, and Environment among other subjects at the University of Hyderabad. She has worked on gender issues since 1998 and specializes in reproductive health, in specific on maternal health, surrogacy, and sex-selective abortions. She has written widely on these topics and has authored a book on commercial surrogacy in India titled ‘A Transnational Feminist View of Surrogacy Bio markets in India’ published by Springer Nature, Singapore. She was invited by the Rajya Sabha Surrogacy Select Committee to give her expert input on the Draft Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill 2019 which has been included in the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2020.
About Dr. Shahida Murtaza
Dr. Shahida Murtaza has an MSc in anthropology and a doctorate in reproductive health from the Department of Anthropology, Karnataka University, Dharwad.
For the last two and half decades, she has been actively involved in gender issues. Her areas of academic interest are gender concerns in reproductive health, human rights development, and the unorganized sector. She has a keen interest in Muslim women's issues and trying to gauge the difference between the tech and the context.
She has been contributing to feminist scholarship through her writings and discourse. She is presently serving as a Professor in Women's Studies and Director, Centre for Women's Studies at Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad.
