New Delhi :
Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave green signal to draft bill whose main motiveis to safeguard the rights of Surrogate mothers.This draft bill aslo aims to make parentageof such children legal on Wednesday.
According to the Health Ministry proposal, the draft Surrogacy Bill, 2016 aims at regulating commissioning ofsurrogacy in the country in a proper manner. Official sources said the Cabinet gave its green signal to the Bill to be introduced in Parliament. A Group of Ministers (GoM) had recently cleared the billand had referred it to the Union Cabinet for a final call.
The GoM was constituted at the behest of the PrimeMinister's Office. Apart from Health Minister J P Nadda, Commerce Ministe Nirmala Sitharaman and Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal were among those part of the GoM.
The government had recently admitted that in the absenceof a statutory mechanism to control commissioning of surrogacyat present, there have been cases of pregnancies by way of surrogacy, including in rural and tribal areas, leading to possible exploitation of women by unscrupulous elements.
The bill was to be taken up by the Union Cabinet on April27, but it was dropped from the agenda at the last moment. To prevent exploitation of women, especially those inrural and tribal areas, the government has prohibited foreigners from commissioning surrogacy in the country and has drafted this comprehensive legislation, the sources said. The government had recently said in Parliament that provisions are being made in the draft Bill to make parentageof children born out of surrogacy "legal and transparent".
