VISAKHAPATNAM: A day after the family of a Dalit woman, with the support of activists of Progressive Organisation of Women (POW), staged a dharna at a private hospital in IV Town police station limits, here, alleging that the hospital management was involved in commercial surrogacy, violating the guidelines prescribed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the authorities of the hospital denied the charges as baseless on Thursday as the Managing Director (MD) of the hospital in question, S Padmasri, while speaking to the newsmen termed the incident as “a trap laid by the family of the woman for money and to defame the hospital”.
Dr Padmasri told newsmen that it was the woman herself who came to the hospital for surrogacy.
“On March 22, a couple, along with the woman, who is now accusing our hospital, approached us. They wanted the surrogacy to be done. We counselled the woman and they entered into an agreement (with the hospital). The agreement is a legal document that the woman is willing to go ahead with the surrogacy. (The agreement says that) the woman will just bear the baby and she is fully willing to go for it,” Dr Padmasri said.
The MD also said that the woman had even taken medicine properly after the embryo was inserted and went on to add that her taking medicines suggested that she was an interested party. Had she not been interested why should she have taken the medicines, the MD questioned.
Family’s allegations
According to the husband of the Dalit woman in question, his wife had already underwent sterilisation after giving birth to two daughters and a son. She was however, befriended by another woman in their colony, who convinced her to sell her eggs for Rs 20,000, the husband said. The woman was then admitted in the hospital, but eggs were not retrieved, but the doctors performed a surgery on her to reverse the sterilisation that she had undergone before, apparently in a bid to make her capable of reproduction for the surrogacy business, the husband of the Dalit woman had alleged on Wednesday. The victim and her family had alleged that the doctors had told her that they would give her more money if she gave birth to a baby after completing the pregnancy months properly.
She however, reportedly escaped from the hospital and was treated in another hospital.
Speaking during the Wednesday dharna, POW district president Venkata Lakshmi said that woman trafficking for misuse of surrogacy was rampant in the city. She also said that focus needed to be kept on agents, who were luring poor women in a bid to hire their wombs. Lakshmi alleged that apart from the victim woman in this case, the hospital had around 15 more Dalit women, who were admitted for giving birth to surrogate children. Recently, a woman escaped from here, she said and “with our support, she filed a complaint in IV Town Police Station on Monday.”
Dr Padmasri, while speaking to the newsmen on Thursday said that the women’s organisations did not even approach her before staging the agitation and accused “they have also damaged the property of the hospital”. Dr Padmasri went on to add that the Dalit woman in question had targeted the hospital just to defame it and for money. The hospital had all legal documents and other evidences and it was ready to take legal recourse.
Team to probe issue
Following instructions from higher officials of the State government, city police commissioner has appointed a team, which includes the DMHO, the KGH superintendent, members of the Women & Child Welfare department, for probing the case.