Deep in debt, farmers fuel kidney donation racket in AP

Baram Venkat Reddy is only 29 but he looks much older than his age with drooping shoulders and lazy steps.

A native of Machavaram village in Pidiguralla block in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh, Baram has no hope for future. He has sold everything he had - his half-acre land, 80 gm of gold ornaments of his wife and one of his kidneys - to clear his debt.

Still a large part of his loan stares at him. Baram, a tenant farmer in Rentachintala, incurred a loss of over Rs 5 lakh on his chilli crop last year.

Driven to desperation, Baram followed the advice of one Srinivas and decided to trade his kidney for a "substantial amount".

On February 2, he underwent surgery at a hospital in Secunderabad where his left kidney was transplanted in a 30-year-old person hailing from Kukatpally on the outskirts of Hyderabad.

"I am happy that I could save a life. But I do not know about my own fate. I have done my job on humanitarian ground," Baram told Mail Today. He refused to divulge the amount he got for selling his kidney but said it wasn't enough to repay his loan.

Same was the case with another tenant farmer Maraboyina Appa Rao (30), who fled to Macherla from Rentachintala after money lenders started hounding him.

Two touts - Tailor Seenu and Sai Kumar - promised him Rs 4.5 lakh if he "donated" his kidney. "After the surgery, I was paid only Rs 1.75 lakh. I could not clear my debts and the money lenders are still after me," lamented Appa Rao, who is currently working as a construction labourer.

According to Vijay Kumar, an employee working in Rentachintala milk chilling centre, there are at least seven other farmers who have been paid a few thousand rupees for "donating" their kidneys in Hyderabad.

The reason for this alarming situation, Vijay said, is the big kidney sale racket that surfaced in the Palnad area between 1998 and 2000.

The Palnad area, comprising Macherla, Kambhampadu, Rentachintala, Dachepalli and Piduguralla blocks, has mostly rain-fed cultivation. It is dominated by big farmers who lease out their land to landless farmers.

They collect lease amount of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 per acre in advance from tenant farmers, who have to bear the risk of cultivation. In a good season, they make enough money, but if there is a crop failure, they plunge into deep debt.

"With the drought condition and unseasonal rain wreaking havoc on crops in Palnad area for the last three years, the tenant farmers are forced to sell their kidneys. This is being exploited by the kidney brokers who have surfaced in the area again," he said.

Source: http://indiatoday.feedsportal.com/c/33614/f/589700/s/293f4d34/l/0Lindiatoday0Bintoday0Bin0Cstory0Cdeep0Ein0Edebt0Efarmers0Efuel0Ekidney0Edonation0Eracket0Eap0Eindia0Etoday0C10C2566280Bhtml/story01.htm

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