Just a day ago, Sambhavna Seth announced her pregnancy. The video titled “We are pregnant” aroused joy and curiosity in subscribers who have seen the ups and downs, including her failed IVF on multiple occasions.

Sambhavna’s appearance in her recent vlogs did not indicate that she is carrying a child, and the same was confirmed by her “We are Pregnant” video that the couple is looking to welcome the baby via surrogacy.

The curious mind may ponder why the actress did not opt for surrogacy previously, as her health conditions weren’t favourable for pregnancy. It is because surrogacy in India is harder than most people think.

Why Surrogacy is Hard In India?

Many of you may not know, but India was once known as the surrogacy capital of the world. A large number of poor women in the country attracted commercial surrogacy even more rapidly, with foreigners willing to pay nearly 4 -5 lakhs to a poor woman’s family, an amount which is hard to ignore.

The misuse sharply increased. Seeing the misuse, the government tightened the laws and not only banned commercial surrogacy but also ensured the laws were strict enough.

However, that made surrogacy difficult for genuine cases also. The government brought laws that ensured even genuine cases have a hard time proving their intent in official documents.

First of all, commercial surrogacy was banned by the government due to the misuse of surrogacy. Only gestational surrogacy was allowed. Then, there were limitations such as the following

• Only a married Indian woman can do surrogacy.
• Surrogacy for foreign couples was strictly banned.
• Surrogacy can only be done by the surrogate mother once in her lifetime.
• The surrogate mother needs to have her own child before going through surrogacy.
• The couple who intend to have a child through surrogacy needs to prove that they are unable to have a child due to medical reasons, or if they have a child (children), then the child should be disabled as per medical terms. Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan were allowed to have Abram via surrogacy in 2013 despite having two normal children, as the law wasn’t strict at that time.
• But the most challenging hurdle of surrogacy in India is “The surrogate mother must be a close relative of the intended parents“. This law has seen some relaxation in the last few years, but finding even an acquaintance to carry the surrogate child is extremely difficult, especially in Indian society.

And, if the above-listed reasons can be managed, then comes the biggest hurdle — bureaucratic corruption and inefficiencies, which can lead to the delay or even rejection of the genuine cases.

This does not mean surrogacy in India is not possible for genuine cases. It only means that the genuine people may have to work a lot harder to prove eligibility than they should.