Dr Sheela Suryanarayanan, Associate Professor, Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Hyderabad spoke at the United Nations parallel event held at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), held at New York on 19th March 2022 on the subject “Surrogacy Act (2021) Policy in India and its Implications”. The panel on ‘Gender Equality, Public Policies and Surrogacy’ was organised by ICASM (The International Coalition for the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood), Paris.
Dr Sheela Suryanarayanan spoke about the new developments in the Surrogacy Policy in India, prohibiting commercial surrogacy and permitting altruistic surrogacy. She pointed out the persistence of patriarchy and classism in surrogacy practices. While supporting the prohibition of commercial surrogacy, she critiqued altruistic surrogacy and certain clauses in the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act 2021 as well. The provision for Non-resident Indians to avail surrogacy serves to reiterate classism, she argued. The justification given for widows and divorcee women to avail surrogacy also reinforces patriarchy. Dr Suryanarayanan raised questions about the limitations in regulating sex-selecting abortions and racism in current surrogacy practices, and concluded that surrogacy amounts to reproductive injustice.
The Video link of Dr Sheela Suryanarayanan’s talk can be seen below :
Full video of the panel discussion can seen at https://www.facebook.com/mariejosephe.devillers.96/videos/381642300201621
About University of Hyderabad
The University of Hyderabad is an institute of post-graduate teaching and research. The school was established by an act of the Parliament of India in 1974 as a Central University. Over the years, it has emerged as a top ranking institute of higher education and research in India. The university also offers courses under distance learning programs. The university is a member of the ‘Association of Indian Universities’ (AIU), the ‘Association of Commonwealth Universities’ (ACU) and ‘International Council for Distance Education’. An Academic Staff College has been functioning on the university campus since 1988 under the UGC scheme for improving the standards of teaching in colleges and universities. The college organizes orientation and refresher courses for college and university teachers.
For more information, visit: University Of Hyderabad