Why the double standards?

At a time when Parliament is debating whether homosexuality should be legalised, with a few refusing to even discuss what for them is a taboo subject, foreign gay couples have found that India can offer them a hope for fatherhood, writes Alifiya Khan.

Evyatar, or ‘more fathers’ in Hebrew, is an apt name for a baby born to two. On Monday night, an Israeli gay couple took their Evyatar — born to a surrogate mother — home, where he can look forward to a normal existence. Unlike in this country, where his status might evoke pity or even derision.

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At a time when Parliament is debating whether homosexuality should be legalised, with a few refusing to even discuss what for them is a taboo subject, foreign gay couples have found that India can offer them a hope for fatherhood.

Their laws at home prevent them from adopting children or go for surrogacy, but there is no such bar in India, where for a small price they can hire a surrogate mother to deliver their biological child.

So, ironically, at a time when the surrogacy business in India is booming thanks to an influx of same-sex foreign couples, the Indian gay community continues to struggle for validity and against Section 377, which criminalises their very existence.

Years of debate and activism later, the government has acknowledged they exist but is unsure if they’re criminals or not for being what they are. Can such a society even contemplate allowing gay couples the joy of fatherhood?