New Delhi: In an apparent dig at some film stars who have opted to have children through surrogacy, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that surrogacy seems to have become a “fashion” for celebrity couples.

“It has become a fashion especially with celebrities… People do not want to go through the labour pain and pay money to another woman to go through that process,” she said after the Union Cabinet cleared the Surrogacy Bill on Wednesday.

Swaraj further said: “Big celebrities who not only have one but two children, a son and a daughter, even then they went ahead with surrogacy”.

She said that the new Bill will check exploitation of poor women especially in the rural and tribal areas and prevent “womb trade”.
Many Bollywood celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Tusshar Kapoor have opted for the surrogacy route to have children.
While both the Khans have two elder children, Tusshar Kapoor opted for a surrogate child despite being single.

Incidentally, Swaraj who prefers to keep a low profile as the External Affairs Minister was seen in a new role on Wednesday as she was roped in as the government was keen on using her gravitas to present its new proposal on the rights of surrogate mothers and she headed the group of ministers that helped draft the bill.

Under the bill, couples going for surrogacy will also have to produce a certificate to prove that one of them is medically unfit to bear a child. People already having one child cannot go for surrogacy.