Organ Bazaar

Hospital staff gets ready for a kidney transplant surgery at a private hospital in Chennai.

A worker restocks distilled water, one of the key components in dialysis, at a clinic in Chennai, the medical capital of India

A dialysis center in Chennai, the medical capital of India.

Rani undergoes dialysis at a center in Chennai, India

A neighborhood in Chennai near where Geethu* lives. His family had to mortgage their house to be able to afford the transplant.

Geethu *, a 27 year old man from Chennai mortgaged his home and sold all his families possessions to pay for the expensive transplant he underwent in April. The former fisherman is now too in debt to pay for the drugs he needs to maintain his health.

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Surgeons prepare a kidney for transplant at a private hospital in Chennai, India.

Dayvi * lives in Chennai in South India. She sold her kidney in 2016 for about 1 lakh rupees (1.200 euros). She had to fly to Sri Lanka for the surgery. Two years later, she is in constant pain and cannot work or lift heavy weights.

Dayvi * went to Sri Lanka for her surgery. This traffic in human parts is often transnational.

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Dayvi * is in constant pain and cannot do heavy work. She runs a small food stall with her husband. Although she was preparing large amounts of food, on this day she had not eaten.

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A horse grazes near a slum area in Chennai, India.

A photo taken of Bashita* and the recipient, a wealthy government contractor. She was promised 5 lakh rupees (Six thousand euros), but is yet to receive the money because the recipient died.

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Bashita * wakes her daughter up from an afternoon nap at their home in West Bengal, India. She was promised 5 lakh rupees (six thousand euros), but is yet to receive the money because the recipient died.

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Bashita's* daughter watched TV at their hut in West Bengal, India. She was promised 5 lakh rupees (six thousand euros), but is yet to receive the money because the recipient died.

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A sari travelling salesman pitches his wares to women in the Uttar Dinajpur district of West Bengal, India

Mouli*, on the left, making the bed with her daughter in their home in West Bengal.

She was married to an abusive alcoholic at the age of 12, and suffered long years of abuse and violence. One year ago, she decided to flee, and went back to her parents home in a nearby village. When I met her, she had decided to sell her kidney in the following months, in a bid to secure a better future for her two daughters.

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Mouli * (left) is a 27 year old woman from the village of J in West Bengal. She is set to sell her kidney in the following months, and has already received half of the money.

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A market in Uttar Dinajpur at dusk

A young woman performs a puja in the Uttar Dinajpur area of West Bengal.

Roudri*, a former donor, holds the only memento she keeps from her surgery, a towel she was given at the private hospital in Kolkotta where her kidney was harvested.

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Basav * in his home in West Bengal. He a 55 year old man, who had to sell his kidney to pay for one of his daughter’s dowry. Since then, both his wife and son have sold their organs for the same reason.

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People make their way home during a monsoon storm in Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal

It is estimated that 200.000 kidneys are needed every year in India. Rapidly changing diets and lifestyles are the cause of the rising kidney disease problem. This demand for organs has spured a black market that preys on the poor and destitute. Usually, the traffickers target debt ridden farmers or families in slums that are in dire need of money. They promise life changing amounts of cash but in the end, they receive only a small amount, or none at all. Organ Trafficking often affects women, as the men are usually seen as the breadwinners of the family.

This work is represented by Institute Artist
India, 2018

After reading about the work of professor Nancy Scheper-Hughes, I decided to embark on a project about this issue, having felt the weight of disease in my own family’s life. I could sympathize with the desperation some families feel when faced with difficult healthcare choices and was distraught over the fact that I had never heard about organ trafficking before. After many months of research, India emerged as a hub for this modern day black-market trade.

Touching down in Chennai, the medical capital of India, an ancient city where my colonizing ancestors had left a mark many centuries before in a ruthless effort to expand an Empire, I felt burdened by a history of white exploitation of Indian stories. Determined to work with local organizations and journalists, I wanted to tell this story in an honest and open way, that would at the same time, provide a glimpse into a secretive operation, and to provide a human face to a personal tragedy. In Chennai, after about a month of on the ground research I came across the first men and women who had sold a kidney to support their families. During the following months, I would interview with great detail four individuals that I could prove had sold their organs, and met countless others with similar stories of running out of choices.

In Chennai, where I was assisted with reporting by Laasya Shekhar, many of the donors were victims of a tsunami and had lost all their possessions. Shortly after a refugee camp was brought up, the kidney brokers started to come in. Year in and year out, slowly it became a common practice among them. If you have debts, or if you need to pay a dowry, or if your husband is an alcoholic and cannot support the family, you don't have a lot of choices but to sell a kidney. In my experience, I discovered that the trafficking affects women more, as men's bodies are seen as vital to the household economy. So women sell their organs, putting their family's well being in front of their own.

In Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal, where I collaborated with Caritas and SMOKUS, I discovered a different story, where instead of shame, there was a sense of normalcy in certain communities, in which it was common practice to sell an organ, seen as a clean and easy way to make some extra money. It was in one of these communities where I was menaced by local thugs on payroll from the kidney broker, and told that if I ever came back, I would be killed. Luckily, and thanks to my fixer Gautam, I was able to walk away unharmed.

The issue of Organ Trafficking in an extremely complex and intricate subject that shows how inequality is rampant in modern day Indian society, and elsewhere. In West Bengal, Gautam said to me after my first few days there: “In this faraway place, where there are only villages, this might seem like it is the ends of the earth for you. But for us, you are the one that comes from the ends of the earth”.