Two men and a baby....

The Dostana effect, is it? Nice to see Page 1 of the Times of India carrying this article.

Yonatan lovingly cradles one-month-old Evyatar in his arms and feeds him milk from a bottle in the Santa Cruz apartment he and his gay partner Omer have rented. The Israeli couple came to Mumbai to have Evyatar by a surrogate mother. “Since there is so much planning, preparation and travel involved, the child is more appreciated,’’ said Yonatan, who heads Israel’s largest gay rights organisation. He says it’s time for India to change Section 377, all the more because India is so “diverse and pluralistic’’ and shouldn’t treat 10% of its population as outcasts. Yonatan (30) and Omer (31) have been together for the last seven years and recently decided to start a family. “Israel doesn’t allow same-sex couples to adopt or to have a surrogate. So we started scouting around and found that only India and the US offer surrogacy to same-sex couples,’’ said Yonatan. They heard about Rotunda clinic through friends and say it was the “personal touch’’ that appealed to them. “We also thought we could help a surrogate here rather than in the US, which is more prosperous.’’ The cost factor too was a consideration as the entire process cost nearly half of that in the US. “India was also closer to home,’’ they said. India, with its availability of surrogates, easy paperwork and lower costs has earned a reputation for its surrogacy programme, with Anand in Gujarat often being referred to as the ‘surrogacy capital of the world’. Same-sex couples are the latest category to trickle in. The Rotunda clinic itself has seen 40 same-sex couples since 2005. Infertility specialist Gautam Allahbadia said they receive frequent requests from same-sex couples from France, Spain and Sweden. But infertility specialist Indira Hinduja who recently received requests from two gay couples from Switzerland and France says she is sceptical. “There are several factors to consider. For instance, will the child get citizenship in their home country? Also, since the surrogate is Indian, the features of the child will be Indian,’’ she said. Yonatan and Omer first came to Mumbai in January for an IVF cycle when Yonatan donated his sperm. “We were in constant touch over email, sending them the ultrasound,’’ said Dr Allahbadia, who said the couple is now keen to have another child and they’ve requested the same donor, so that the couple can have “real siblings’’. The couples took their time over selecting a surrogate. A psychologist by training, Omer prepared a questionnaire which was emailed to three anonymous ‘mothers’ and they finally zeroed in on one. “As you can see,’’ said Omer, pointing toEvyatar, “we made the right choice.’’ The birth of Evyatar was received with joy by both Yonatan’s and Omer’s families, said Omer who pointed out that the most common fear that parents harbour when their children come out of the closet is that they won’t have any grandchildren. They returned to Mumbai in September in time for the due date. The 3.8 kilo Evyatar was born at Hiranandani Hospital in Powai on October 12. They named him Evyatar “as it was appropriate in our case’’, said Yonatan. Taking him back has involved a lot of “bureaucracy’’, said the new parents, with the Israeli government requiring them to do a DNA test to prove their paternity. “We Fedexed the copy to them, following which we could clear his passport and other documents,’’ they said. The duo now have their duties chalked out. While Omer handles the morning shift, Yonatan takes over baby-sitting at night. “He’s quite a character,’’ said Omer of the new arrival. The couple is scheduled to fly back to Israel with Evyatar on Monday night. “We will look for a school which has a good mix of students. In Israel the 13th birthday of a child is very important and we will bring him back to Mumbai then,’’ said Yonatan.