The movie Mimi is out on Netflix. It is a light-hearted (even if superficial) take on the complexities surrounding surrogacy and adoption – making poorer and aspiring women in the country vulnerable. The story ends with a resolution that left me sympathetic but unsatisfied.
Partly, due to the fact that off-screen surrogacy and adoption efforts go off the rails in many more ways than the movie indicates. Since these are serious matters, the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill of 2019 was passed by the lower house of Parliament and remains to be passed by the upper house.
A couple of statistics towards the end of Mimi made me sit up :
1. “If orphans were a country of their own, the population would rank 9th in the world.”
2. “More than 153 million children are currently waiting for someone to adopt them.”
153 million is close to the populations of the entire States of Bihar and Odisha put together!
Will our families and societies ever be restructured so the orphan has a place in this world that is not on the margins? Aren’t orphans included in the words of Jesus when he said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven”?
What will it take to develop a cultural consensus in the country so that it accepts children without the blinkers of our bloodline, caste and colour?
Photo Credit: Twitter/The Quint
