Dr Amit Kumar, the mastermind, behind an industry that performed approximately 500 illegal transplants over the last few years has been arrested in Nepal. Poor folks were offered cash, threatened and coerced to turn ‘donors’. Scandals involving kidney transplant have broken out regularly in India. Even before this particular scandal came to light,I had heard about people going to Amritsar and Chennai for a transplant. Sometimes I wondered why some people found the doctors in these cities more capable than the ones in Delhi. Now I have some idea.
Too much has been written about kidney commerce after this scandal broke out, but I would like to highlight another aspect of this transplant business -the social bias. Munita Bal and B Saikia from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, analysed renal transplantations performed between 2001-2005 to study gender balance. The studies weren’t surprising.Male recipients were 89% of the total 682 transplantations that took place.Female recipients were 11%. Women donors were 66% where as only 34 % donors were males. Mothers constituted 32% of live donors. The last result wasn’t surprising. Mothers will be mothers.
Now comes the biggest disparity-
Wives donating for husbands 90%
Husbands donating for their wives- 9%
This hurts more than female foeticide and infanticide.You are talking women who are your wives, mothers and daughters and not an unseen entity. The possible reasons behind this gender gap could be men being the only earning members of the family, coercion or emotional blackmailing. Women at least in India go out of their way to protect the males in the family. The doctors might try to speak to the family to rule out coercion but a woman who is prepared to part with an organ of her body can be trusted to not spill the beans.
from Vishesh :)
from Reema :)
10 Comments
February 8, 2008 at 9:42 pm
hmm…there was also an arrest in chennai..not in connection with this (at least till now)…hmm….i think the reason for women being more of donators maybe because men are the ones who have problems..
February 8, 2008 at 10:02 pm
You have a point but figures should always be taken carefully:
“Wives donating for husbands 90%
Husbands donating for their wives- 9%”
Maybe men are more in need for kidneys, the interesting figure would be “how many men did not give a kidney to their wife in need?”
“This hurts more than female foeticide and infanticide.” // i can’t agree with that
February 8, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Rajiv: Prerna is absolutely correct. Men are the biggest and most exploitative bastards. They always find excuses not to donate, aided by their mothers….
February 8, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Yes, Prerna is correct. I have read about this. But it is not surprising at all. In a society where a girl child gets less food is it surprising that if needed, it’s her brother who will get a kidney, but not her? I am glad you highlighted this Prerna.
February 9, 2008 at 5:44 am
I’m not denying the bias, I just thought other figures (female foeticide or infanticide) are more compelling to me to show how unfairly girls are sometimes treated in India.
I hope the gap is narrowing
February 9, 2008 at 11:41 am
I have nothing to say on this because same thing is happening in Pakistan..on the basis that men are the bread winner and thus entitle to life more than their women..
February 10, 2008 at 4:44 am
Its things like these that make you want to stand all these men in a row and shoot them, or sometimes just give up because it seems like things are never really going to change. What is it going to take for men to accept women as equals!
More and more I’m finding that the men aren’t the only ones to blame. At least 2 out of 5 women I speak to tend to agree that women need to be submissive to men for relationships to work. With that kind of thinking, its not wonder that things aren’t moving forward as fast as they should. This doesn’t bode very well for future progress as well because for things to change, the problem needs to be identified. If women don’t see this as a problem at all, finding a solution isn’t going to be easy.
February 10, 2008 at 9:52 am
[...] Pr3ma finds the gender bias in the ‘transplant business’ objectionable: This hurts more than female foeticide and infanticide.You are talking women who are your wives, mothers and daughters and not an unseen entity. The possible reasons behind this gender gap could be men being the only earning members of the family, coercion or emotional blackmailing. Women at least in India go out of their way to protect the males in the family. The doctors might try to speak to the family to rule out coercion but a woman who is prepared to part with an organ of her body can be trusted to not spill the beans. Linked by kuffir. Join Blogbharti facebook group. [...]
February 10, 2008 at 7:46 pm
very insightful post! its sad to witness the involvement of doctors in this evil practice
i agree with rambodoc, men top the charts for being A-holes
February 14, 2008 at 1:57 pm
The reality is pinching!