• Listen to this segment

GUEST: Jayati Ghosh, Professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Childless couples around the world are increasingly renting wombs from impoverished women in India. Surrogate motherhood, the process in which a woman agrees to carry a child to term for a childless couple, is increasingly becoming outsourced to India. Whereas some countries have banned the procedure outright, and other have heavily regulated the practice, surrogate motherhood is not subject to regulations nor laws in India. The lack of governmental regulation coupled with the fact that rent-a-womb services are far cheaper than in the West have made India favored nation among couples seeking surrogate mothers. The cost of commercial surrogacy in India is between $2,500 and $3000 as compared to rates in the United States which run between $15,000 and $30,000. For the economically disadvantaged in India, surrogate motherhood can offer anywhere between $3,000 and $6,000 per pregnancy in a nation where the per capita income is roughly $500 annually. The practice has generated its critics who say that outsourcing motherhood in India leads to its commodification and is exploitative of the poor by the rich.

Professor Ghosh’s article, ‘Rent-a-womb,’ : The latest Indian export, was featured in the October/November 2006 edition of Third World Resurgence www.twnside.org.sg/twr.htm