Kidney Robbery

Ashwini Ahuja

Five years back when a kidney scam at holy city Amritsar had surfaced, one of my doctor-friends had remarked, “India is a repository for fresh kidneys”. He had the apparent reason in saying so- hassle-free availability and proper care- after its transplant. Due to low cost and immediate availability, most of the NRIs prefer visiting India for kidney transplants from all over the world. Apart from NRIs, recipients from USA, UK, Greece, Lebanon, Dubai, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Nepal etc. too seek protection in kidney transplants in India because of the no-risk availability if you have enough cash to buy one. Before 1970, kidney transplants rarely occurred in India because there was a lot of risk if the body of the recipient might accept the foreign object? After the availability of anti rejection drug cyclosporine in the market, renal transplants became common in the country and then India gradually turned out to be a big kidney bazaar. Legally, the commercialization of the kidney is banned not only in India but almost every country except for Iran. USA had banned kidney sales in the year of 1984. At that time, there were reportedly more than eight thousands patients on the transplantation waiting list. Now, as per United Network for Organ reports, it has reached to whopping nearly seventy five thousands. Global demand for kidney is day by day soaring but supply is comparatively low. Yawning gap between the demand and the supply is the boom of kidney black-marketing. India is a country where poor and destitute are mostly uneducated and naive. By coercion or by offering them paltry money, it is not difficult to woo them for kidney donation. And surgeons like Dr. Amit who is dubbed as Dr. Horror and kingpin of the Gurgaon kidney racket, Jeevan and their coterie have been shamefully doing such acts by hook or by crook to heap up millions for the last twenty years. Police reports say that he has clandestine connections with Canada touts for that country’s recipients. Years back, he had sent his family to Canada when police arrested him in another illegal kidney scam. Now, he regularly visited the country for kidney transplants of the patients of that country. Dr. Amit Rout and his accomplices had reportedly made more than 500 illegal kidney transplant operations and continued hoodwinking police and health administration for about two decades, thanks to the bribe and nexus between criminals and police. A patient at PGI, Chandigarh says it happens only in India where police and criminals are friends.However, if we look back, nearly twelve years back, a kidney scam had surfaced in Andhra Pradesh also. After a severe drought which occurred in the year of 1995 in Palnadu area of Guntur district of the state, farmers in thousands have lost their livelihood and had forced by themselves to sell off their kidneys and blood to earn some money. Several farmers had then committed suicides due to utter misfortune and poverty. Doctors like Amit (who is shamefully the son of a freedom fighter) alias Santosh Raut then had played the role of Dr. Horror to coax poor and destitute farmers through brokers and touts to pile up their wealth like now.

The tout was then paid Rs. eighty thousands for each kidney from which he retained 25-30 thousands for himself as commission and remaining amount was honestly paid to the kidney donor. There were reports that that time, the poor farmers had sold their kidneys to gather dowry for their marriageable daughters or build a house for their families.

At that time, moneylenders too had forced misfortune, penniless farmers who had borrowed money from them to buy fertilizers or pesticides, to sell off their kidneys paying off their debts and they too fleeced commissions from surgeons.

Some farmers who were conned by the touts that time even did not know what was going to be happened with them. Doctors would tell them that it was a minor surgery for their good health. But after a year or two, it came to their notice that they had lost their kidneys through touts and gained nothing. Similar swindling has also come to notice in Gurgaon kidney scam where labourers, rickshaw pullers and small farmers are deceived either at the gunpoint or through handing out scanty money to the victims.
Dr. Amit Sachdeva, a surgeon from Govt. Medical College & Hospital, Faridkot (Punjab) says that nothing is more heinous than such illegal practice. Donating kidney to someone needy is really a good gesture if it does not relate to commercial trading. Law too does not allow organs to be removed for other purpose except therapeutic. If your relatives- daughter, mother, son, sibling etc. donate you a kidney, it is quite generous and lawful too. But the demand for kidney is higher than supply. He further says that you can remove organs from cadavers or brain-stem dead but in India where people are generally religious and god-fearing, such practice is strictly hampered. But, for money, to remove kidney from a live donor is utterly illegal and unethical, Dr. Sachdeva concludes. He says that for kidney robbing, law should be more stringent. Lawyer Sher Singh of Ganga Nagar (Rajasthan) says that selling kidney or an organ is punishable by up to seven years’ imprisonment or a fine of Rs. 10,000 or both if it proves. But, due to legal loopholes, it is quite difficult to prove. That is why, the trade is recklessly flourishing as both buyers and sellers feel that it’s a paltry punishment considering lacs change hands in every illegal operation. Moreover, they take benefits of the legal loopholes with the help of legal experts. Have you heard about any kidney seller who had been sentenced due to its trade? Even, doctors generally come out safely despite their illegal practices. Mr. Sher Singh further says that example of Dr. Raut is before us who has been running his illegal shop for several years. No doubt, he had been arrested two three times but escaped through bail, thanks to legal loopholes, he concludes. Mr. Harish Bhateja, a lecturer in Biology says that not only in India, China is also a global centre of kidney availability. Poor and needy people do not hesitate in donating kidney to earn some money to mete out their needs as its removal does not impair health and working condition of the body. If one of your kidneys is removed, the other automatically began to work with more vigor and dynamism. Sometimes, it does not pain in abdomen after removal, Mr. Bhateja says with poise. Mr. Vivek, a medical representative mocks- you can not stop kidney rackets in India. Let me know the name of any state where the sales of kidney is not rampant. Bangalore, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Gurgaon etc. In the year of 1995, custom officers in Delhi had unearthed a ‘kidney tour racket’ in which donors were lured to visit abroad to donate their kidneys for money, he recalls. And, in the same year; some leprosy ridden patients of a place near Madras had offered their kidneys to earn money through touts. Money allurement offered by touts is detestable for kidney removal, he objects. Sometimes, victims have been lured with offers of good jobs and cheatingly in the pretext of proper health check up, their kidneys are robbed. In the year of January 1995, the police had busted a massive racket in Bangalore also, he concludes. A medical girl student Shilpa at Rajendra Medical College & Hospital, Patiala says that if a victim claims that he or she has been cheated without his or her knowledge, it is definitely a lie. Removing kidney without the consent of patient is not possible as it involves a series of different tests administered over a period of a week or more. If one is caught in selling kidney he pretends that he has been hoodwinked, actually the picture is different, she reveals. But, on being queried, she accepts, it is true that mostly poor donors are not paid as they are promised before kidney removal. Moreover, India has a hot climate which makes it hard to preserve kidneys, she says finally. Dr. Anju Setia of Govt. Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot reveals that there are more than eighty thousands patients of renal failure and dialysis units are in hundreds. Bad acts never yield good results, she lastly emphasizes.

This article was published in THE VERDICT, MUMBAI