Kavre, March 27

Until not long ago, Kavre was notorious as a ‘kidney bank’ as smuggling of the vital organ was rampant in the district. However, the kidney racket has ceased for good now.

A mother of two kids from Methinkot VDC, Kavre, sold her one kidney for Rs 3 lakh last year to pay off the debt her husband had taken to go abroad. Since then, no one from the district has sold out his/her vital organ.

Stakeholders claim that increased awareness on kidney racketing had put an end to kidney smuggling.

Satish Sharma, director at People’s Rights Protection Front, said awareness about serious physical problems after the sale of kidney had ended made people stop selling the organ.

PPR has been collecting data of kidney sellers and monitoring the situation in Kavre for the past two years. Data showed that 112 from Hokse VDC, 102 from Panchkhal Municipality and 56 persons from Jyamdi VDC had sold their kidneys.

Of them, the number of females is three times that of males. “Along with monitoring, we have been launching awareness programme too. It must be the impact of the awareness campaign,” Sharma argued.

Data in the last few years had shown that after removing kidney, surgery used to be performed to conceal the wound, which encouraged more people to sell this vital organ.

PPR Kavre Coordinator Krishnapyari Nakarmi said some people were inspired to sell their organs as plastic surgery was done over the wound.

But the situation has completely changed.

Three years ago, a 34-year-old male from Fulbari VDC had had surgery on his wound after selling his kidney in India. Three youths too had followed suit, but the situation has taken a u-turn.

Kidney smuggling started from Hokse and Jyamdi VDCs some 22 years ago. After seven members of a Thakuri family from Hokse VDC-1 sold their village, they had left the village four years ago.

As many as 10 VDCs in the district were hit hard by kidney smuggling.

Hari Prasad Sapkota from Hokse VDC said, “Two persons sold their kidneys two years ago. People have, however, stopped selling kidney now.”

Kidney racketeers used to lure potential victims with up to Rs five lakh and no sign of the scar over the body.

Following the arrest of ten smugglers around two years ago, kidney smuggling began to decline. Of them, seven were kept in custody after their remand was extended.

As per Human Trafficking and Exchange Act, a kidney smuggler is slapped up to ten years’ sentence and up to Rs fiver lakh in fine.

Those involved in kidney smuggling have shifted to rudrakshya farming in the district. They have been selling up to 100 tonnes of rudrakshya to the Pashupati area every year.