Tucked away in Baiguni village, in Kalai Upazila of northwest Bangladesh, thousands of impoverished villagers grapple with a grim reality: many have sold-or been coerced into selling-their kidneys. Lured by brokers promising a ticket out of debt and poverty, hundreds have traveled to India for transplants. Now, suffering chronic pain and betrayal, they wonder: at what cost did their desperation come?
Baiguni: Bangladesh’s ‘One Kidney Village’: Baiguni, home to around 6,000 people, has earned a haunting nickname. According to a 2023 BMJ Global Health study, one in 35 adults in Kalai has sold a kidney. Many are young men struck by unrelenting poverty, crushing debts, or drug dependence-all told by brokers that relinquishing one organ would offer short-term relief.
They follow a predictable script: a broker approaches them offering visa arrangements, flights, fake documents, Indian hospital connections, assured payment. But once the kidney is gone, the money and future dreams vanish too. Personal Stories of Betrayal: Safiruddin’s Shattered Dreams: At 45, Safiruddin sits among the skeletal framework of an unfinished brick house. He sold his kidney in mid 2024 for 350,000 BDT ($2,900), hoping to build security for his three children. Instead, chronic pain and humiliation remain. Brokers arranged everything-visa, flight via Benapole border, forged kin documents-but afterward confiscated his passport, prescriptions, and any future payments. He still doesn’t know who received
his kidney.”They didn’t just take my kidney, they also took my future,” he says, his scar a permanent reminder of deception.
Josna Begum’s Tragic Turn: A widow from nearby Binai, Josna Begum, 45, struggled after her husband died in 2012. Working in a Dhaka garment factory, she remarried, and in 2019, she and her husband Belal were persuaded to travel to Kolkata for kidney transplants. Brokers promised 700,000?BDT (??$5,700), but they received only 300,000?BDT ($2,500). Josna spent 60 days in India, lost her passport and prescriptions, then returned home with debilitating pain. Belal later abandoned her.”I was OK with them taking away the prescriptions. But I asked for my passport. They never gave it back,” she said.Now, she struggles to do any heavy work and depends on daily medication just to make ends meet.
From Victim to Broker: Mohammad Sajal: Mired in debt after a failed e-commerce venture, Mohammad Sajal (alias) sold his kidney in Delhi in 2022 for 800,000?BDT. When promised money failed to materialize, he was drawn into the illicit network-transporting Bangladeshi donors to India for a time. A conflict led him to flee the gang, and he now drives for ride-share services. But the scars remain.
Anatomy of the Trafficking Network: Brokers and Forged Kinship: All actors play a role-local brokers in Bangladesh identify vulnerable donors. They promise finance, arrange health screenings before travel, and prepare forged documents-family certificates, faked DNA reports, notarizations-to present donors as close relatives of wealthy recipients. The rest of the chain includes Indian-based facilitators who manage visas, lodging near hospitals, and transplant logistics.A Delhi Police investigation in July 2025 revealed doctors at Noida hospitals facilitating these operations-blatantly in violation of India’s Transplantation of Human Organ Act, 1994.
Financial Disparity: Patients pay up to ?1.8-2.2 million INR (??US$20,000-25,000) for a kidney. Brokers take a large cut, while the average Bangladeshi donor receives only ?250,000-400,000 BDT (??$2,900-4,600). Earlier trades saw kidneys advertised at INR?18-22?lakh, with donors pocketing just INR?2.5-4?lakh.
Geographic Reach: Predominantly operating across the Benapole-Petrapole corridor, the network uses Bangladesh dialysis centers to connect donors and recipients. Raids by Delhi Police also uncovered rings in Faridabad and Haryana, indicating scale beyond a handful of cases.
Demand and Medical Tourism: In 2023, about 200,000 people in India developed end-stage kidney disease while only ~13,600 transplants took place. For patients unwilling to undergo long legal waits, illegal routes appealing. India’s thriving medical tourism industry (valued at US$7.6 billion) offers a profitable, if illicit, environment-private hospitals profit, hospital administrators look the other way, and corrupt doctors’ benefit from lucrative bribes.
Enforcement: Arrests, Reports, and Flaws: Bangladesh Action: Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have conducted several crackdowns. In May 2024, Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested brokers like Md Masum and others after at least ten donors were trafficked to India. RAB also uncovered domestic rings operating via Facebook groups, targeting poor donors who were sent for overseas or local kidney transplants. Although some brokers received preliminary payments (e.g. 300,000?BDT), the rest vanished after surgery, often resulting in half-finished contracts, lost passports, and no medical care upon returning.
India Side: Delhi Police on July?1 arrested Dr?Vijaya Kumari from Indraprastha Apollo and seven others in Noida for running illegal transplant operations between 2021-2023 . Haryana and Rajasthan police also cracked related rings issuing forged “no-objection certificates” to foreign donors. But these are only key intermediaries-many higher-ups remain free and beyond reach. Legal Frameworks: Gaps & Failures: Laws on Paper, Loopholes in Action: Both Bangladesh and India restrict organ donations to blood relatives or brain-dead donors with explicit kin consent. However, forged documents and corrupt hospital staff allow brokers to circumvent law easily. Enforcement & Transnational Coordination Lags: Despite frequent arrests, prosecution has stalled. Police confess low-level actors are caught, but not the masterminds. Corruption within border security, bribery, and minimal coordination between the countries permit continued trafficking.
Human Costs: Health & Economic Fallout: Chronic Illness and Lost Futures
Most donors return with chronic health issues-persistent pain, infections, mental trauma-without proper aftercare or financial restitution. They cannot return to strenuous work and become new cycle creditors.
Cynical Economics: Many sellers expect to use the money to build homes or repay debts. But housing remains incomplete, money runs out, and their health debilitates lifelong income-earning ability.
Why It Persists: Demand: India’s massive kidney failure caseload (200,000 new cases/year) outpaces transplant capacity, pushing desperate patients toward informal solutions.Poverty Vulnerability: Bangladesh’s poorest villages, especially in the northwestern belt, become prime targets.
Weak Oversight & Corruption: Hospitals want business; brokers have networks; border guards may be bribed; police rarely pursue high-level players. Criminal Ecosystem: The trafficking network spans both countries with transport, lodging, hospital facilitation, bank transfers, fake documentation-functioning like an illicit industry.
Human Rights and Ethical Implications:
International bodies like WHO classify such organ trafficking as exploitative. Studies show most donors-especially those from low-income backgrounds-suffer deteriorating health and no long-term wage gains. Al Jazeera’s fieldwork reveals that altruism is rare. Poverty, deception, and coercion dominate the process.
What Needs to Change: Strengthen laws & cross-border enforcement: India and Bangladesh must harmonize protocols-real-time verification of donor-recipient kinship, biometric tracking, shared databases.Hospital accountability: Institutions facilitating illegal transplants should lose licenses; doctors must face prosecutions.Border vigilance: Enhanced scrutiny at crossing points like Benapole and joint BSF-BGB patrols.Community awareness: Public outreach in high-risk villages to expose brokers’ tactics.Healthcare access: Expand legal transplant options and affordable dialysis in both countries, reducing desperate loopholes.
A Call to Action: Baiguni and Binai aren’t isolated cases-they are alarm bells. A profitable organ trafficking syndicate thrives on systemic neglect, poverty, and weak enforcement. Villagers are sold illusions and left with permanent scars-both physical and social.Until governments in New Delhi and Dhaka act decisively-prosecuting not just brokers, but hospital officials and complicit authorities-villages will continue losing more than organs: they lose hope, dignity, and their future.Safiruddin sums it best:”They didn’t just take my kidney, they also took my future.”
