Hyderabad: Kidney rackets in both Mumbai and Delhi have once again brought to fore the role of brokers in the villages of TS and AP who lure the poor to sell their kidneys.
According to sources, networking between the patient and the broker begins after the hospital certifies the former as in need of a kidney. The broker approaches the patient with an offer of a donor kidney.
A senior government health official said, “The broker is in touch with the hospital administration. The initial attempt is to gain the confidence of the patient and the family and get a donor who matches the blood group.”
The main broker has sub-brokers in villages who are aware of villagers who are in urgent need of money. They tap these people and present them before the patient and later to the hospital.
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According to sources, donors get as little as Rs 5,000 to Rs 7,000 while the brokers charge Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh depending on the urgency.
A senior nephrologist who is a part of the committee that looks into these proposals, said, “Despite dressing up the donor to match the status of the patient, there are some telltale signs which help us to easily identify them as fake.”
