Mumbai: Condemning a recent incident where a debt-ridden farmer was forced to sell his kidney, 100 farmers from Aurangabad will hold a protest on Thursday where they will auction their organs to the public to repay their debt.
“We are suffocating under the burden of debt. Every day, goons of moneylenders keep knocking at our doors. Due to this, we can’t even go outside. We have no other option but to sell our body parts,” said Jayaji Suryavanshi, a farmer and social activist.
At a time when the government is keen to counsel debt-ridden farmers to stop them from ending their lives, farmers appear dissatisfied with the government’s efforts. “We need money to feed our families. The government had promised us that it would help us financially. Every week, we are witnessing farmer suicides. Despite all the hue and cry, no one is addressing the actual cause of these deaths,” Mr Suryavanshi further added.
Mr Suryavanshi told The Asian Age that the farmers will conduct an auction of their body organs on Thursday where the going price for a kidney would be anywhere between Rs 2 and Rs 3 lakh and for eyes it would be Rs 1 lakh.
The upcoming auction comes in the backdrop of the recent busting of an international kidney racket in Vidarbha, a drought-prone region which records the highest number of farmer suicides.
A daily-wage earner Santosh Gawli was taken to neighbouring Sri Lanka to sell his kidney for Rs 4 lakh to repay his debt of Rs 20,000 which he had borrowed from a moneylender.
During police investigation, it was discovered that several middle men were involved in the racket who contacted such debt-ridden farmers and lured them into donating organs in return for a handsome amount.
