Surrogacy A Lucrative Racket In Telangana: Congress

Congress MLAs today expressed grave concern in the Telangana Assembly over surrogacy being blatantly misused for minting money by unscrupulous elements in the state, especially in Hyderabad.

Raising the issue during Question Hour, Congress members G Chinna Reddy, Geetha Reddy, Padmavathi and others highlighted in the House how innocent and poor women were being lured into becoming surrogate mothers with money.

The MLAs said that while the women were being paid a mere one to two lakh rupees, the middlemen were pocketing Rs 10 to 15 lakhs.

The Congress members also pointed out that this racket was thriving because of many foreigners opting to have surrogate children. Many maternity hospitals and fertility clinics were involved in this racket, they said, and wanted the state government to initiate strict action to put an end to this menace.

Replying to the members, Health Minister C Laxma Reddy said that the government had already initiated a number of measures to check illegal surrogacy, and had even taken action against some fertility clinics engaged in the racket. A criminal case was also filed against Sai Kiran Hospital in Banjara Hills in this regard, he added.

The Minister said that the state government had constituted a high-level committee headed by retired judge Gopal Reddy to formulate the rules and policy for legal surrogacy.