The Government today introduced the Surrogacy Regulation Bill in the Lok Sabha which seeks to protect women from exploitation and ensure the rights of the child born through surrogacy and to ban commercial surrogacy in the country. <br/><br/>It also has provisions to constitute a national surrogacy board, state surrogacy boards and appointment of appropriate authority for regulation of the practice and process of surrogacy. Health Minister J P Nadda introduced the bill in the house amid opposition protest over the demonetisation move.<br/><br/>Once approved by Parliament, there will be a complete ban on commercial surrogacy, but altruistic surrogacy will be<br/>permitted for needy infertile couples under strict regulations. The bill entitles only Indian citizens to avail of surrogacy but foreigners, NRIs and PIOs are not allowed to seek surrogacy in the country. The bill allows surrogacy only for legally married couples after five years of marriage and with a certificate from a doctor stating that they are medically unfit to produce a child.<br/><br/><br/> Women within the age group of 23 years to 50 years and men aged between 26 to 55 years will be eligible to go in<br/>for surrogacy. In an attempt to check commercial exploitation and middlemen, the surrogate mother can only be a close relative, like a sister or sister-in-law who is married and has at least one healthy biological child. A woman can be a surrogate only once in her lifetime.