If statistics are any indication, a large number of "unrelated donors" for kidney transplant seekers from the state hail from West Bengal. And obviously when there are no other known links between the donor and the recipient, the common factor to bring them together is "money" and presence of a well-oiled interstate racket of sale of human organs.
In the past few years, West Bengal has reportedly emerged as a major centre for illegal trade of human kidneys and many poverty stricken people are being lured to sell their organ for good and easy money. However, the state government there has totally failed to check the practice and newspaper advertisements seeking kidneys regularly appear in vernacular papers there.
Taking a cue from one such advertisement Rajkumar (name changed), whose elder brother was suffering from renal failure and has been on dialysis at a hospital here, approached one such advertiser. He subsequently went to meet him in Kolkata and after negotiations, a donor was arranged for his brother.
Though Rajkumar refused to give details of the transaction, he said the donor was then "tutored" for establishing links with his family, which is mandatory as per the Transplantation of Human Organ Act, which was amended and made tougher last year only. The Act clearly states that where the proposed transplantation between individuals who are not "near relatives", the authorisation committee shall evaluate that there are no commercial transaction between the recipient and the donor. Besides, the link between the donor and the recipient has to be proved with documentary and photographic evidence also.
The authorisation committee then interviews both the donor and the applicant to verify their claims and if they are satisfied, they permit the transplantation. The interviews are also videographed.
According to sources, since 2011 the Chhattisgarh's transplantation authorisation committee has received 11 applications from non-related donors hailing from West Bengal, and this number has been steadily increasing, with 2 such applications being already received this year. In 2011 and 2012, four and five such applications were respectively received from transplant seekers from the state. The authorization committee approved only 4 of the 11 such applications.
Investigations by the TOI revealed that during the interviews (this reporter was privy to some videography) in most cases it was apparent that the donors were tutored about the details relating to the recipient. "Yes, I have known him for the last three years. I had met him in Delhi. His son and my son are also friends", says one donor from West Bengal who has no knowledge about the address, the area or even the city where the recipient resides. "He stays in Chhattisgarh", was all he said about the recipient.
Sources claim that kidneys can be bought from West Bengal for anything between Rs 3 lakhs to Rs 5 lakhs. In most of the cases the deals are struck through touts and often doctors and private renal care hospitals are involved in it. Interestingly, all the application received by the authorization committee in 2012 and 2013 were through one super speciality hospital in Kolkata.
While recipients and their families obviously see no wrongdoings in such deals and blame the "strict and unreasonable" transplantation laws for the flourishing illegal trade, the sale of organs to ward of poverty, and that too only for a some time, cannot be justified in any manner.
Doctors say that the remedy lies in more organ donations and there can be no substitute for it. As per figures, there is a waiting list of over 1,50,000 people for kidney transplant in India.
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