Dhaka/Kolkata6 minutes ago
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Baguni, a small village in Joypurhat, North-Western district of Bangladesh, has now become notorious as ‘One Kidney Village’. Here one in 35 people have sold their kidneys.
According to Al Jazeera’s report, this illegal organ trafficking between India and Bangladesh has ruined the lives of many families.
Safiruddin, 45, is a resident of this village. In the summer of 2024, he came to India and sold his kidney for 2.5 lakh rupees. Their purpose was to get out of poverty and build a house for their three children. But now their house is incomplete, there is constant pain in the body and there is no power to work.
Safiruddin says,
The brokers said that everything will be easy. I did everything for the children. But after the operation, my passport, medical slips and medicines all disappeared.
Safiruddin has not yet known who has been given his kidney.
Brokers remain relative of patients with fake documents
According to the Human Anga Transplant Act (ThOA) 1994 in India, kidney donations can be done only among close relatives or with government approval. According to the report, brokers dodge this rule through fake documents and fake evidence of kinship.
Al Jazeera’s report quoted WHO expert Mirni Maniruzamam as saying that
Fake identity cards, notary certificates and DNA reports are made. Hospitals often do not doubt or they deliberately ignore.
In 2019, a broker was taken to India by a broker to a hospital in Kolkata and got a transplant to a hospital in Kolkata. The first 7 lakh Taka (Bangladeshi currency) was promised, but only 3 lakhs were found after the operation.
Joshna says, “Dalal did not return to the passport. Later, Belal also left me.”
Joshna is now longing for medicines and is unable to do heavy work.
‘If you do not get all the money of the kidney, then become a broker himself’
After losing everything in e-commerce fraud, Dhaka businessman Mohammad Sajal (name changed) sold his kidney in Delhi in 2022. He sold the kidney for 8 lakh rupees.
But when the promised 8 lakh rupees were not received, he started arranging transplant for other Bangladeshis by becoming a broker himself.
“This gang is associated with doctors, hospitals and brokers of both countries. I am now under the shadow of their gun,” says Sajal.
The Bangladesh Police has claimed that they have intensified the action on the network of organ smuggling and several brokers have been arrested.
Delhi Police arrested a female surgeon in July 2024, who is accused of illegal transplant of 15 Bangladeshi patients. But the action is insufficient.
Health tourism in India is a $ 7.6 billion industry and more transplant means more. In such a situation, the silence of hospitals is also promoting this business.
Buying kidney for 2.5 lakhs and selling for 18 lakhs
The report quoted the brokers as saying that the patients pay 18 to 22 lakh rupees for a kidney, while those who sell the kidneys get only 2.5 to 4 lakh rupees. The rest of the money is divided into hospitals, brokers, documents and doctors.
According to the report, in some cases, people were taken to India on the pretext of jobs and later forcibly or deception was conducted.
According to Bangladesh Rural Unnati Committee (BRAC) officer Shariful Hasan,
Some people sell organs themselves due to poverty, but many times they are cheated and implicated.
What does the kidney work
Kidney is one of our body’s most important organs. It works to remove waste materials, extra water, sugar and everything that the body does not need. These toxins are accumulated in the bladder ie the bladder and then get out of the body with urine.
If the kidney falls ill, it stops doing its work properly. Crores of people worldwide are living with kidney diseases. Most of them do not even know that they have kidney disease. This is the reason why kidney disease is also called silent killer.
