Indian women rent out their wombs to Western couples to make ends meet

Since the practice of surrogacy was legalised in India since 2002, prostate the country has become a world centre of "surrogacy tourism". Or perhaps surrogacy colonialism might be a better description. 

Take Shabnum Nur Mohammed Sheikh as a good example. She is having another woman's child because the 60 rupees (80p) her husband earns from his food stall each day buys dinner but little else.

Shabnum's first surrogate pregnancy got her out of a shared shack in a slum and into a small flat. Her second will pay for uniforms, books, bags and eventually, she hopes, university fees for her three young daughters.

Pushpa Pandiya, 33, also left the slums after buying a small apartment with money earned from, in her case, two surrogate pregnancies. She too has a bright young daughter. She is about to embark on her third pregnancy for some "very nice" foreigners.

A relative lack of red tape and prices that are a quarter of those in the US or Europe have brought thousands of childless couples to Indian clinics to be matched with women like Shabnum and Pushpa.

The Confederation of Indian Industry predicts the business will generate $2.3bn (£1.5bn) annually by 2012. And rather grotesquely, a recent report by the Indian Law Commission described it as a "pot of gold".

Whatever next for women's bodies as commodities?