Hyderabad: The process of surrogacy begins with agents searching for and identifying innocent women in good health. The gangs even trap poverty-stricken women from neighbouring countries like Nepal.
Telangana State Women Commission chairperson Tripurana Venkataratnam said that agents, some doctors and infertility centres have become ‘medical mafia’.
“When I focused on their activities last year, the medical mafia run by agents tried to organise protests at Women Commission’s office by mobilising poor women. While I was focusing on the subject across the state and revealed a few facts to media, agents with groups of women, claiming to be surrogate mothers, questioned me why I was becoming an impediment to their bread and butter,” Ms Venkataratnam said.
She said that the agents were bringing poor women from Nepal. In the recent case involving the Kiran Infertility Centre in Banjara Hills, some of the surrogate mothers among the 48 women were from Nepal. “Mostly, the agents tend to target women from rural and tribal areas. Tribals from Banjara Tandas and women living below the poverty line are the targets of these gangs. Surrogacy has become a commercial activity and the agents are treating a woman’s womb as a commodity,” Ms Venkataratnam said.
She said that most of the surrogate mothers from rural areas are not aware of the risks involved. “Most of these surrogate mothers suffer post delivery. The biological parents need only the baby are not aware of the health of surrogate mother. Even agents too don’t care about the mother’s health. Agents don’t inform them about the risks,” Ms Venkataratnam said.
