Chennai (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Police in southernIndiasay they have uncovered evidence of illegal trade in kidneys sold by poor fishermen and their families whose livelihoods were destroyed by theIndian Oceantsunami two years ago. Community leaders in Eranavoor village, just north of Chennai, admitted that about 100 people, mostly women, had sold their kidneys for 40,000-60,000 rupees (HK$7,050-HK$10,565) since the disaster on December 26, 2004.
"We have launched a comprehensive investigation," Letika Saran, Chennai's police chief, said yesterday. Another police officer, who declined to be identified, said: "This appears to be a big racket and we are collecting the details of donors and the hospitals involved." Some of the 1,800 families near the city ofChennaisay fishing became impossible after their seaside village was washed away and they were moved 12 kilometres inland to Eranavoor. Displaced fishermen have been put up in temporary camps which in places are some distance from the sea. That adds to their transportation costs and means they have less time in their vessels. In some families, where the men folk have suffered permanent injuries from the tsunami, women are forced to bear the brunt of running the household. Many of these families say they are now in deep distress. Now the women in these families are resorting to selling their kidneys.
Fr Anthony Thota, missionary from the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME) and coordinator of its tsunami campaign in Tamil Nadu, agrees. “Three years since the tsunami, people are still desperate. The government and international organisations have not yet provided the aid they promised and so life is very difficult,” he said.
Kidney sales are prohibited inIndia, but donations by relatives are allowed. Those kinds of sales by poor people have been reported in the past, but this is the first time that tsunami survivors are reported to have been lured into the trade.
More than 7,000 people were killed when giant waves smashed into the coast ofTamil Nadu, the south-eastern state of which Chennai is the capital. WhileIndiawas initially praised for its response to the disaster, non-government groups have since criticised the government for failing to provide adequate housing.
