FWD: Buy my kidney, please

*WARNING: The tender of stomach may wish to delete this post, but it
does perhaps inject some reality into the abstractions*

Pace the exchanges over I=PCT, population, environment, technology,
consumption, development, anthropocentrism, etc. It does not need to
be said that while there is a 'natural' element in it, the
consequences of the drought are anything but natural.

The $ is the Singapore $, roughly 1.7 to USD at current rates.

KJ Khoo

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http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/world/npwo24.html

India dries up

No water, No food, No money
Buy my kidney, please

BY SUDHA G TILAK
May 20, 2000


FOR 46-year-old farmer Ramiah Babu, it was the last resort.

He is battling severe drought in a small village in Andhra Pradesh.

No water, no crops, no food, no money.

So, to survive, Mr Ramiah sold one of his kidneys.

"I got fifty thousand rupees ($1,972) for selling one kidney," he said.

"That's enough for my family of six to eat when the rains have failed and
our cattle are dead and the crops have fallen without a drop of water," he
said.

Mr Ramiah is not alone in this bizarre and sad tale.

At least 20 farmers from the Rentachintala area of Andhra Pradesh
have sold
their kidneys as crops have failed them, reports indicate.

The farmers of the village say this is the last and only resort they have
to feed their families, to pay off their debts and to buy fertiliser and
seeds.

Another farmer, Peram Reddy, said he was paid 40,000 rupees ($1,578) for
his kidney.

"Without money and without resorting to stealing or committing suicide,
selling my kidney was the only way to pay off debts and ward of
starvation," he said.

Most of the farmers who have sold their organs are aged between 30 and 40
years old.

In India, the commercial trade of organs, especially kidneys, has led
to an
illegal trade of organs in the last six years.

Sensing the desperation of these farmers, organ-selling middlemen or
"agents" from prosperous Andhra Pradesh cities like Vijayawada have moved
in to exploit the situation.

They are known to lure drought-stricken farmers to sell off their kidneys.

They assure doubtful and unwilling farmers that donating one kidney will
not affect their normal life and promise them big money.

Investigations reveal that the agents make farmers go through medical
tests
to check if they are healthy enough to donate kidneys.

If the donors pass the test, they are taken to to Delhi or Chennai for the
kidney operation.

Farmers who resist on the way to the hospitals are threatened with dire
consequences if they turn back and are forced to continue.

While the donor farmer gets only 40,000 rupees to 50,000 rupees, the agent
usually pockets 400,000 rupees.

It was found out that a black market in kidneys existed when two kidney
agents, Murthy and Raju, were arrested in Andhra Pradesh.

The Guntur district police chief J Purnachandra Rao has now launched a
drive to nab such agents and rescue desperate farmers.

Under the Transplantation of Human Organ Act 1994, those who traffic in
organs face seven years' jail and a fine of 20,000 rupees.

Doctors who do operations for agents face five years' jail.

Mr Ramiah's neighbour said:

"Either I have to sell my organ to battle the drought, or the agents will
get me. The options are bleak for us."

As long as the drought continues, the farmers do not see any change in
their plight.

Devastating drought

REFUGEES (above) from drought areas living in makeshift camps in Barmer,
India, while they look for work after their crops have failed.

A child (right) filling a bag with water from an emergency government
water
depot in Dhudwa, in Barmer, in the north Indian state of Rajasthan.

These are just two of the stark images from the drought in the millennium
year that has affected over 100 million people in India.

It is the worst drought that India has seen in the past 100 years.

The states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Orissa and Andhra
Pradesh
are worst hit by drought and suffer acute water scarcity.

More than 23,000 villages in Rajasthan are struggling with the severe
drought.

In Andhra Pradesh, the drought has affected 18,000 villages, leaving
18 out
of the 23 districts of the state drought stricken.

In fact, the water expert department of the World Bank has warned that by
2005, India could be declared one of the acute water scarce nations of the
world.