Sama has been consistently using the film on surrogacy -“Can We See the Baby Bump Please?”, that it produced in 2013 as a tool to initiate and further discussions on the issue. The film screenings and discussions have been organized for various organization, networks and academic institutions throughout the country.
- A half-day interaction programme was held in Delhi on 31 October 2015 with a group of 35 community level team members from the organization MASUM, Pune, Maharashtra. Sama members did a brief round of sharing their work in various areas with regard to adolescent health, gender based violence and ARTs. The screening of Sama’s film ‘Can We See the Baby Bump Please?’ was also done for the group, following which there was a discussion regarding surrogacy, rights of a surrogate and the ongoing debate on ART Bill for regulation of ART industry in India.
- A screening of the film was organized by Sama along with JSA Odisha on the 14th September 2015 at CYSD, Bhubaneshwar. The audience included people from Medical and law colleges, social work institutions, those from women’s studies departments and civil society organisations.
- O. P. Film Jindal Global Law University, also hosted a screening by Sama on the 3rd September 2015. The participants included students as well professors from various departments of the University. The discussion focused on the issues and concerns pertaining to consent form and the Draft ART Bill. Concerns vis-à-vis citizenship of the child born out of surrogacy, rights of the surrogate on the child she gives birth to were the major issues of delibeartion. Many students expressed their interest to take up Surrogacy as their research topic and hence showed their interest in visiting Sama for more resources on Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) and the arrangement of Surrogacy in the entire gamut of ARTs.
- Sama organized a screening along with JSA Chhattisgarh on 3rd August 2015 at Raipur, Chhattisgarh. 30 people from community based organisations working on issues pertaining to Gender Based Violence, health and domestic violence came together for the event.
- Sama was invited to screen the film at ITM University, Gurgaon. The audience at the screening was mainly from the law department that included students, faculty and researchers. The discussion focused on the issues and concerns pertaining to various provisions of the Draft ART Bill. Issues around citizenship of the child born out of surrogacy and the rights of the surrogate over the child born out of surrogacy were debated.
- The film was screened at Dr B R Ambedkar University, Delhi for postgraduate students of Gender Studies, followed by an invigorating discussion on surrogacy and its relationship to larger issues concerning choice and reproductive health. The interaction involved cross-referencing Sama’s research findings with their theoretical and syllabi-related questions.
- In November 2014, a group of 25 undergraduate students and faculty members from the University of Chicago visited Sama for a session as part of their Study India Programme. The film was followed keenly and was an eye-opener for many of the students who also inquired about Sama’s research and advocacy interests in the area of assisted reproductive technologies and surrogacy.