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Tsunami-affected women in India sell kidneys for survival

New Delhi_(dpa) _ Poverty-stricken Indian women affected by the December 2004 tsunami have been selling their kidneys for survival, news reports said Monday.

"During an inquiry by the revenue divisional officer, we found about 35 women of Tsunami Nagar (a temporary shelter) have sold their kidneys," Ranvir Prasad, an official of Thiruvallur district in southern Tamil Nadu state was quoted as saying by the Indian Express newspaper.

He said the regional officer MS Sangeetha had spoken to 16 women at the shelter at Eranavur, 7 kilometres north of Tamil Nadu capital Chennai, who said they had sold their kidneys to brokers. These middlemen took them to cities like Chennai and Madurai for surgery to remove their organs.

"The Chennai police has started a quiet investigation as we do not want to alert the kidney brokers and touts," Prasad said.

The women were offered up to 100,000 rupees (2,256 US dollars) for a kidney, but were often paid less than half the sum and ended up ill due to lack of post operative care, PTI news agency reported quoting unnamed local officials.

The women told Sangeetha that they were forced to sell their kidneys as they had no other means of survival.

They said the temporary shelters built for them were too far from the sea and they could not sell fish on the sea front as before. Their menfolk had also stopped fishing because of the distance and whiled away their time drinking and put pressure on the women to pay back family debts and keep the household running.

Maria Selvam, a leader of the Tamil Nadu Fishermen's Association said: "Earlier one or two people sold their kidney, but now almost two people sell every week."

Prasad said Tamil Nadu's special rehabilitation commissioner had held an emergency meeting Sunday where it was decided to speed up construction and allocation of permanent houses for the tsunami affected.

The December 2004 tsunami killed 7,996 people and left more than 35,000 homeless in Tamil Nadu. According to information recently released by the state government, around 37,000 permanent houses for tsunami survivors are yet to be built.

According to official estimates, 10,749 people died in the tsunami in coastal districts of India and hundreds of thousands were rendered homeless. dpa su jh

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