Gujarat government has banned surrogacy through Surrogacy Bill, however, a gritty woman who says she never was shortchanged and could come out of abject poverty thankfully by letting her womb twice has charted another unusual trajectory, Bhanu from Gorva village with 2000 odd inhabitants in Borsad taluka of Anand district in Gujarat is elected sarpanch unopposed in the Gujarat panchayat elections.
That this woman is having a clear vision and steely resolve to shape her future for the better is evident from the unconventional choices she is making and on top of it, she is able to get social acceptance.
Bhanu says she was living in a shanty made of tarpaulin and dried leaves with her husband and three children of her own. Her husband, a casual labourer earning Rs.200 a day could not make ends meet. He signed up for clinical trials to get money to run the household.
Bhanu chanced upon hearing about Dr, Nayana Patel’s IVF clinic which was in need of willing surrogates to enable childless couples to become parents with the medical help where embryo belonging to a couple is put in the womb of a surrogate for giving birth. Bhanu’s life took a turn after her visit to the hospital.
Bhanu carried and gave birth to twins for a consideration of Rs. 3.5 lacs in 2007. In 2011, becoming a surrogate for the second time, she earned Rs.5.5. lacs. One without a proper roof over her head, Bhanu built her home, got her husband’s mortgaged land freed, had her brother-in-law married and started her dairy business.
Overcoming the initial societal apprehensions, Bhanu built her life. She says her husband and her family had been supportive of her decisions. Watching a couple who thought they could never become parents, holding the babies in their hands is the most gratifying experience, Bhanu says.
Before surrogacy was banned of sorts, Anand in Gujarat came to be known as the surrogacy capital of the world. People from around the world, NRIs and others, came to Anand for IVF treatment and in search of surrogate mothers.
