Banning Singles and Unmarried Couples from Surrogacy Hurting the Indian Rupee??

Online, August 29, 2013 (Newswire.com) - The Rupee has devalued significantly in the last 2 months and our CAD (current account deficit) is 4.8% of the GDP. Current account of a country includes all inflows and outflows of routine nature. Inflows or Credits include exports of goods and services and remittances received from abroad. Now a majority of these remittances are from relatives of Indians who live abroad but also from medical tourism!!

Since January 2013, Government of India banned singles and unmarried couples from having babies through Surrogacy, this has stopped one vital chunk of remittances that were coming from abroad as patients make their payments through their respective banks in their respective countries to clinics in India. This is essentially Foreign currency and in a majority of the cased US$.

According to Dr.Samit Sekhar, who is IVF and Surrogacy Program Director at Kiran Infertility Center "this move has not just hurt Clinics, Surrogate Mothers, Egg Donors but also stopped a sizeable number of tourists from coming to India as patients and their relatives who come for Surrogacy/IVF also go sightseeing across India". This contributes to the economy by helping the hotel industry.

According to Mr.Satvinder Pal Singh who handles the travel and tourism desk at the Kiran Infertility Centre "some patients stay a stretch of anywhere between 30 to 90 days in India whilst they wait for their respective countries to provide travel documents for their newborns".

According to Mr.Singh "it helps the Airline Industry, the Auto Industry, Language translators, providing job opportunities to people from within and beyond the medical fraternity. If clinics earn income they also pay taxes to the Govt. in return. This again boosts the economy".

Even though we might not be talking huge numbers the ban has certainly restricted inflows which were only going to grow further because Surrogacy and Assisted Reproduction was growing at a remarkable pace in India.

According to Dr.Samit Sekhar "it is an undeniable fact that Surrogacy does contribute to several sectors of the economy" and not just to the clinics and Surrogate Mothers".

Mr.Singh states that "even after the patients having already obtained a medical visa upon arrival in India have to register themselves at the FRRO. He further states that security of the country is of paramount importance but certainly the visa processing can be further streamlined to help the patients who contribute towards the growth of the economy as part of medical tourism"