Parl committee on surrogacy to visit key centres next week

A parliamentary committee, which is scrutinising the surrogacy bill, will be visiting key surrogacy centres like Anand, Hyderabad and Mumbai next week to hold consultation with various stakeholders as it works to firm up its recommendations over the proposed legislation.

Sources said the committee, headed by senior BJP leader Bhupender Yadav, is looking at framing regulations incase single parents are allowed to go for surrogate babies.

It will visit the three cities during January 21-24, they said.

If a single parent is allowed adopting a child, then what is wrong in him or her having a surrogate child, they said, adding that this is one of the views being considered by them.

The committee is also holding wide consultations to define "close relatives" so as to ensure that needy infertile couples have adequate options.

The government had in Parliament's winter session referred the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, which seeks to ban commercial surrogacy in India, to a 23-member select committee of Rajya Sabha.

The committee is likely to table its recommendations during the upcoming budget session of Parliament.