The desperately
poor in Tamil Nadu, many of them victims of the December 2004 tsunami,
are being lured into selling their kidneys. Chennai has emerged as the
kidney transplant capital of India though the racket is also flourishing
in other cities in the state. Brokers or middlemen, who work in collusion
with government and private hospitals, usually never pay the promised
amount to the mostly illiterate donors. What is worse, doctors and brokers
often remove a ‘donor’s’ kidney without his or her
consent.
When 28-year-old
Suresh Raju of Namakkal approached a friend for a Rs 50,000-loan, he
was advised to donate a few bottles of blood for the money. He agreed
and went to a hospital in Coimbatore with his friend, where he was administered
sedatives. When he woke up he realised that one of his kidneys had been
removed. According to sources in the police, as many as 500 people in
Kumarapalayam and Pallipalayam areas of Namakkal district have sold
their kidneys in the last few years.
The
poor sell their kidneys for as little as |
Rs
30,000 |
while
the recipients pay around |
Rs
5 lakh |
to
the hospital |
|
Chennai has become
the kidney transplant capital of the Subcontinent. Those familiar with
the kidney trade in the city say that it is easy to get a kidney if
one is willing to spend a few lakh rupees. All one needs to do is to
get admitted in one of the government registered hospitals that perform
kidney transplants — there are 62 in the state — and rent
a house near the hospital. Brokers take care of the rest.
No wonder then that
patients from north India, and from neighbouring countries like Sri
Lanka and Nepal, are heading to Chennai for a kidney transplant. According
to the sources in the Tamil Nadu health department, at least 50 foreign
nationals have undergone kidney transplants at hospitals in Chennai
and Madurai in the last couple of years. “Some hospitals offer
a total kidney (transplant) package, which includes a donor kidney,
for Rs 5 lakh,” a health department source who wishes to remain
anonymous, told Tehelka.
Suresh Raju went to
a hospital in Coimbatore
to donate blood. He
was sedated and his
kidney removed |
The kidney trade
has been flourishing in Tamil Nadu despite the Transplantation of Human
Organs Act (THOA) 1994, which regulates the “removal, storage
and transplantation of human organs.” The full magnitude of the
racket came to light only after some tsunami-affected women in north
Chennai confessed at a public hearing in January that their poverty
had forced them to sell their kidneys.
On January 19, 34-year-old
Mallika from Tondiarpet in north Chennai lodged a complaint with the
police against a broker who she said had refused to pay her the promised
Rs 1.5 lakh for her kidney. She said she had been paid only Rs 30,000.
Venkatalakshmi from
Namakkal district also lodged a complaint with the police saying that
she was raped in Coimbatore in November 2006 by two kidney brokers and
a prospective donor. She had accompanied them to pose as the wife of
the donor before the members of the authorisation committee (AC), the
authority which grants approval for organ transplants. She said that
one of the accused recorded visuals of the rape and unsuccessfully tried
to blackmail her into accompanying them again for a similar job.
In a quick survey
conducted in the fishing hamlets of north Chennai with the help of a
social service organisation, Karunalaya, Tehelka identified 29 people
— 26 men and 3 women — who had sold their kidneys.
‘I was assured
the family would look after me for the rest of my life. It was
a big lie,’ says 29-year-old Bhuvaneshwari
|
In addition to large
sums of money, brokers also dole out false promises like life-long care
for the donor. Twenty-nine-year old Bhuvaneshwari of Thideer Nagar sold
her kidney for Rs 45,000 in 2003. “I believed the broker who assured
me that the family would look after me for the rest of my life. But
it was a big lie,” she laments.
K. Murugan, who
lives in voc Nagar, sold his kidney in 2005 for Rs 45,000.
His broker took
him to a hospital in Tirunelveli for the operation. “The recipient’s
son told me to contact him in case I need any help. He gave me his address
but it was false,” says Murugan.
S. Kumar, a resident
of mth Road, was immediately able to recall the names of 10 residents
of a nearby slum who had fallen prey to the racket. At Bharathi Nagar
in Villivakkam, almost every home has one donor. “There are about
10 brokers in our area. Most of them are hiding in the wake of the media
outcry over the kidney sales,” said K. Viji, a resident.
Many were forced
to sell their kidney so that they could repay their debts. N. Paul Sundar
Singh, director, Karunalaya, points out that the poor in north Chennai
usually borrow from moneylenders at an exorbitant rate of interest.
Like many others, Devi, 35, from Kasimedu, sold her kidney over her
husband’s protests to save their family from the debt trap. She
was taken to a hospital in Anna Nagar, where she says she met an employee
who finalised the deal. “I don’t know whether he was a doctor
or an agent. But he used to come to the hospital everyday in the afternoons,”
she says.
A study conducted
by the Centre for Sustainable Development, iit, Chennai, on the kidney
trade in Tamil Nadu, refers to “contact persons” in hospitals
who “may also help potential recipients in locating potential
donors.” The study, conducted by Vangal R. Muraleedharan and S.
Ram Prasad notes: “Most of these middlemen literally live in the
premises of those hospitals which encourage the kidney business.”
The crime branch
of the Tamil Nadu police (CB-CID) arrested three brokers on January
23 on the basis of Mallika’s complaint. In most cases, the kidneys
have come from “unrelated” donors. According to official
sources, Devaki, Kaliappa, and Apollo hospitals in Chennai; Madurai
Meenakshi Mission and the Apollo hospital in Madurai; and the Kovai
Medical Centre in Coimbatore have performed the most transplants in
recent years.
Sources in the CB-CID
said they are not empowered to conduct full-fledged investigations into
the racket. The Authorisation Committee and the Appropriate Authority
(AA) are the two main bodies supposed to oversee the implementation
of THOA in each state. The most abused part of the THOA is Section 9
(3), which permits donation of human organs to an unrelated recipient
for “reason of affection or attachment towards the recipient.”
Most women kidney sellers said they were coached by brokers to tell
the committee that they had been working as housemaids for the recipient
for several years. Says 44-year-old E. Thamilselvi of Thideer Nagar,
who posed before the AC as Kanniammal, a recipient’s neighbour.
“It was my broker’s idea. We produced Kanniammal’s
ration card as residential proof.”
A health department
official pleaded helplessness in checking the racket. “It is not
possible for the ac to verify the addresses provided by the donors and
the recipients since the verification is time consuming. Moreover, it
is a matter of life and death for patients,” he said.
Surprisingly, aa
has not taken action against a single hospital or doctor so far despite
the powers bestowed on it by THOA. Director of rural and medical services,
Bava Fakhrudeen, who is also a member of the ac, promises stringent
action in future. Nephrologists and urologists in Tamil Nadu have decided
not to speak to the media on the issue. “We don’t want to
create more confusion on the issue. Doctors are putting their heads
together to come out with positive suggestions. We have decided not
to speak until then,” he added.
