Organ transplant
trafficking is one of the fastest, but least reported crimes in India as well
as in other countries around the world. It has often been described as a
deep-rooted menace affecting the medical profession, both domestically and
globally.
Backed by
unscrupulous personnel linked to the medical profession, including touts and
doctors, it is estimated that across the globe, roughly 100,000 illegal kidney
transplants alone take place.
So entrenched is the
organ transplantation process, that at times well known hospitals and doctors
don't even know that the critical replacement organ they are inserting in a
patient is illegal.
Take for instance the
kidney racket in India, which records show has raised its ugly head from time
to time. There are past examples of this racket being run by a nexus of
middlemen (touts), doctors and lawyers etc, who harvest kidneys from poor
people in dire need of money for paltry sums and then sell them to recipients
at substantially higher prices.
The genesis of the
kidney racket stems from a huge mismatch between the demand and supply for
kidneys in the country and a loophole in the law, which is often misused by
these scamsters.
They seem to have
mastered the art of using loopholes in the system to smoothly push through necessary
documentation and clearances, that at times, even doctors and hospitals don't
suspect anything and become victims of the racket.
It is a finely tuned
modus operandi, where middle men arrange kidneys from the poor; get false
affidavits made and provide the required organ to the recipient.
Sometimes, the donor
may even be positioned as a relative as per documentation. Doctors, hospitals
and even screening committees are beguiled by such foolproof paperwork, that
clearances are often obtained in a jiffy and the scamsters make off with a neat
sum of money.
Delhi and the
National Capital Region (NCR), Tamil Nadu capital Chennai and the Union
Territory of Chandigarh have emerged as prime centres for transit and organ
transplant trafficking.
In the year 2003, a
kidney racket was busted in Amritsar, where they were sold anywhere between
Rs.5 to Rs.8 lakhs. In 2004, a Bombay Hospital-based kidney racket was busted
and the kingpin along with his accomplices was arrested. After the arrests, it
was learnt that the kingpin had deceived the hospital authorities by producing
forged documents for conducting the transplants.
In the past one
decade, Chennai, has emerged as the breeding ground for a thriving organ racket
whose primary targets have always been the poor. The arrest of a Chennai-based
medical representative in 2007 by Mumbai police for allegedly running an
inter-state kidney racket revealed the enormous size of the illegal organ
market that had grown into a syndicate with international links.
In 2008, a Gurgaon-based
kidney racket was busted by the U.P. police and the subsequent arrest of Dr.
Amit Kumar, the suspected kingpin of the racket, revealed that he had links
with an international racket that was operating in Nepal, Sri Lank and
Indonesia.
Asia's biggest kidney
harvester T. Rajkumar Rao, conned over 15,000 debt-ridden farmers, Tsunami
sufferers and impoverished tea garden workers to build a Rs.75 crore organ
transplant empire before he fell into a cleverly-laid police trap along with
his partner in crime Dipak Kar late last month. According to Delhi Police, the
duo had a 250-strong staff spread across South Asia to help them zero in on
potential victims. Delhi Police said that Rao had confessed to supplying
kidneys to more than 15 top hospitals across India and nowhere was asked about
who were the donors.
The World Health
Organisation (WHO) estimates around 2,000 Indians sell a kidney every year. The
WHO says South Asia is now the world's leading transplant tourism centre, with
India among the top kidney exporters. Kidneys taken from Indians are delivered
to Americans, Israelis, Canadians, Britishers, Saudi Arabians and residents of
the Gulf region.
In the last two
years, cases of illegal organ transplants have surfaced in Maharashtra,
Hyderabad and Gujarat.
As per police
investigations, four Colombo-based hospitals have been identified for
performing about 60 illegal transplantations for Indian recipients.
In most of these
cases, reputed hospitals and doctors have suffered irreparable damage to their
reputation and credibility on account of these rackets.
The government has
mandated that under the Transplant of Human Organ Rules 2014, only organs of
immediate blood relatives, including parents, siblings, children, grandparents
and grandchildren can be accepted for transplant. The Indian Transplant
Registry shows that roughly 100,000 to 200,000 people require a replaced kidney
every year, but only about 5,000 manage to get a transplant.
For following the
process legally, a comprehensive set of documentation is required, including
affidavits with photographs of both the donor and the recipient certified by a
first class magistrate. There are in-camera interviews too. Two separate
committees for related and unrelated donors evaluate and clear cases. The committee
that looks at procedures involving related donors comprises hospital staff, but
people who are not part of the treating team. For unrelated donors, there are
two nominees of the government who evaluate the cases.
Last December, Health
and Family Welfare J P Nadda, highlighting the problem in parliament, admitted
that there is a huge gap between the demand and supply of human organs for
transplantation, and added that the government is giving priority to increasing
donation of cadaver organs to bridge the gap and save lives.
That does not take
away from the fact that middlemen appear to have placed themselves in key
positions at some hospitals and nursing homes to meet the demand of this ugly
side of healthcare in India.
Representative Image
Source: ANI
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