Women Affairs

Deepak Mahaan In a new twist to the outsourcing for which India has become renowned, poor Indian women are renting out their wombs to foreigners. Surrogate motherhood -- carrying to term and giving birth to another woman's baby - once was limited in India to helping close relatives who couldn't complete a pregnancy due to medical difficulties. But leading gynecologist Dr. Kamla Selvaraj says it's now becoming a regular "profession" in India, with more and more women willing to carry babies for others, for a fee. India has for years been providing foreigners with in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment at a cheaper rate than the equivalent services in Western countries. Surrogacy comes in when the biological mother is unable to carry the child. Alternatively, a surrogate also provide eggs when the woman wanting a child is unable to do so herself. Apart from low-cost IVF treatment, India also is offering surrogate mothers at a considerably lower price than couples wo...

Men in the land of Kamasutra have proved their mettle (ahem!) in the past and today they are happily surging ahead of their female counterparts, especially in terms of sex awareness as reported in a recent survey. Talking about sex is still considered a taboo in a country like India. It is spoken about in hushed tones, behind closed doors. And it is a topic, which is supposed to make women quite uncomfortable. A recent survey conducted by the International Institute of Population Sciences, Mumbai and a Mumbai-based NGO, Population Council, reflects on the lack of sex-related awareness among the women. Quite pitiable City-based model Krishna Somani says that she was in her college when she got correct information about sex and related issues. She adds, "In the school it was only through the text books that I came to know about the reproductive system and when I was in the college, I learnt about contraceptives and STDs." The 20-plus girl agrees that she was a little late in se...