A reproductive racket has been busted in Hyderabad, how India’s underground surrogacy and egg donation industry is exploiting poor women by converting poor women into a collateral in the financially growing black market. Along with banning commercial surrogacy in India, frequent hormone remedies, unsafe medical practices, and zero post-care have created a silent public health crisis that only a few are ready to face.

The Hyderabad police busted a commercial surrogacy and egg-trading racket led by a former surrogate mother and her son (a chemical engineer by profession). The accused, along with his son, allegedly recruited weak women, mostly from low -income backgrounds, donating eggs or renting their womb.

The racket bust and fallout story have been exposed to the local media, but it may soon disappear from the news cycle. This, doctors feel, the only problem is when it comes to addressing women’s health crisis in India.

Systemic rot This demands a deep look: India’s surrogacy laws are really protecting women, or simply carry forward business with frightening results for women’s health and dignity?

Empowerment or exploitation

India once stood as the world’s surrogacy capital, attracting millions of foreign couples. But concerns over exploitation gave birth to the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, which banned commercial surrogacy and allowed only philanthropic arrangements among close relatives.

The intention was certainly great, but the result is very low.

Today, as the Hyderabad racket shows, the commercial surrogacy has not disappeared, it has become dark. Worse, former surrogate mothers, who once needed protection themselves, are now being used, or voluntarily becoming an intermediary in this secret trade.

Let’s talk about health emergency

Repeated hormone injections, unsafe egg recovery processes, and many pregnancies in short spans can wreak havoc on a woman’s body. But these are standards in India’s illegal breeding market.

A senior gynecologist Dr. in a private hospital in Hyderabad. “We have treated many young women with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome and internal bleeding,” says Akriti Verma as they were repeatedly made to donate eggs without proper medical examination. “

Dr. Verma said, “Many of them never understand full health risks, they were told that it is just a simple injection.”

Such cases point to a terrible truth: the absence of informed consent and post-process care is as common as it is fatal.

What is being done about it? Hyderabad surrogacy bust is not a separate case; There are illegal operations operated in metropolitan cities like Gurugram, Delhi and even Bangalore. Many reproductive clinics with canceled licenses still continue to work under new (fake) names. Even the brokers exploited legal flaws by proving documents wrong and forcibly forcibly to women through debt trap and misinformation.

Listing the results, a senior retired gynecologist of Medanta in Gurugram, Dr. Anjali Sood reiterated that the health effect of underground surrogacy is serious.

“Hormonal damage is caused by irregular egg harvesting. It is becoming a serious problem, and therefore frequent procedures are at risk of permanent infertility that these women are made to bear. Then unprotected pregnancies and psychological effects such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression cause physical trauma, which they face on a daily basis,” she says.

In a regulated system, these risks can be reduced. In the shade, they multiply.

Numbers speak for yourself

The numbers below should not only be seen as data, but should not be seen as evidence of a deep, dangerous underground economy that is endowed beyond the reach of regulation. Demand for systemic exploitation, scale and severity should be thousands of illegal clinics for essential public, media and policy meditation.

• In early 2019, it was estimated that India is a surrounding house 2,000 to 3,000 surrogacy clinics It was working illegally in India, catering for several thousand foreign couples.
• Recently in Hyderabad surrogacy racket bust, accused allegedly accused parents 10-20 lakh rupeesBut only paid to the exploited women around 2 lakh rupeesThis shows the exploitative profit margin.
• Law enforcement seized 6.47 lakh rupees cashDuring the raid, from the premises of the accused, with medical documents and supply.
• In case of fake surrogacy and child trafficking through Srushti Breeding Center, 25 people arrestedIncluding doctors, agents and middle men. Police estimate that hundreds of couples may have been cheated.
• Only home about Telangana Such clinics with 381 registered IVF clinics, 157 are concentrated in Hyderabad. It highlights a dense and often irregular reproductive landscape in the region.
• Officials estimate that around 4 to 5 child trafficking cases The annual fertility clinics, including quack operators and surrogate networks, thus highlights a cool tally of systemic cruelty.

Kolkata-based reproductive rights researcher Dr. Rituparna Chatterjee says, “Currently the law focuses more on moral policing than structural reforms.” “By banning commercial surrogacy without strengthening enforcement, India has handed over the market to criminals. Women are paying price with their health, bodies and their freedom as well.”

What we need is medical safargard and not only legal restrictions with looping.

Evil of evil?

The Hyderabad case especially dangerous that the alleged ringallder was once a surrogate mother. She knew the system, clinics and process and used that internal knowledge to exploit other women.

“This is a painful irony. Women who once require security are now unknowingly entangled,” Dr. Meena Bhardwaz says in Professor of Social Medicine of Social Medicine. “But we should ask why they are turning in the first place? It is often poverty, lack of employment, or is left by families for whom they bore children.”

The way to fix this is not just from a difficult crack. We need to go deeply: starting with a national health registry for all reproductive processes and clinics, ensuring moral recruitment and consent to donors and surrogates. Experts say that there should be a mandate for post-processer insurance and mental health assistance. Apart from all the above, Dr. Bhardwaj says that recognizing former surrogates as a risk is an essential, not only as agents.

Hyderabad surrogacy racket is a wake-up call. This is not about a woman’s broker. It is about hundreds of him, former surrogates, new donors and even desperate mothers, all of which are caught in a system that gives importance to children, but not women who bring them into the world.