Click to play videoJaipur: The ordeal for baby Manjhi, who was born to an Indian surrogate but caught in a legal tussle after her Japanese biological parents got separated, is finally over.
Three-month-old Manjhi, who was issued a one-year Japanese visa on October 27, is all set to go back home on Saturday.
“These three months were full of ups and downs. I'm relieved and happy that we have finally got all the documents and that we can now leave,” Manjhi’s grandmother, Emiko Yamada, said.
Manjhi's Japanese parents got separated a month before she was born. Even though her father Ikufumi Yamada still wants to claim her custody, a string of legal hurdles prevent him doing so, for Indian laws prohibit single fathers from taking custody of a girl child.
Manjhi currently has no nationality. The nationality column in her visa reads 'ZZY’. To get her a Japanese citizenship, her father will have to legally adopt her.
Manjhi has seen so many dramatic twists and turns that an amateur filmmaker in Jaipur has set about making animated film on her to raise awareness about the need for better surrogacy laws.
“We realised her father was hesitant talking about her surrogate status. So we thought we need to clear some air here and tell people that there's nothing wrong about surrogacy,” Kanupriya Vijayvergiya, who’s making the film as a send-off gift, explains.
As Manjhi bids farewell to her friends and well-wishers in Jaipur, Manjhi does not seem to mind all the attention, for she will soon be in the arms of her father.
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