The family of Sushma Pandey was completely in the dark about the egg donations she made,despite she being under the minimum prescribed age of 21,at a fertility hospital between February 2009 and August 2010. The truth that they found out only after the 17-year-olds death has made her mother Pramila Pandey feel that her daughter may have been misled by someone. She fears that there may be more teenagers who might go down the same road unless prevented. She was not someone who could be fooled easily but I dont know why she never told us about it, says Pramila,who was by her daughters side when she died in the Rajawadi Hospital on August 10,2010. The news of Sushmas employer Sunil Chaumal being discharged of the offence of kidnapping and poisoning Sushma,adds to the discontentment of her mother. Sushma was employed in Chaumals scrap depot in Andheri and supplemented her fathers modest income by earning Rs 4,500 a month. Sushma,her mother says,was a bright girl but she gave up school after Class VIII. My husband is a taxi driver. He makes between Rs 3,000 and 4,000 every month. Sushma,third among five siblings,started working so that she could facilitate the studies of her younger brothers. The family,from Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh,lives in the crowded Mishra Sadan chawl in Saki Naka. Pramila remembers her daughters hearty laughter. She would laugh out so loudly while she watched television that many a times we had to shout at her to keep it low. Pramila says that of all her children,Sushma was the healthiest. She was fair,tall and not at all skinny. There was no girl as lively as her in the whole chawl, she says. We had also found a suitable groom for her. He lives in Powai and owned a telephone booth. We were going to get her married once she turned 18. What led to Sushmas death remains a mystery for the family. Pramila says the woman Noorjahan,who posed as Sushmas guardian at the fertility hospital,is a complete stranger to her family. My daughter is no more. But there may be other young girls who may have been lured or misled into doing what the law does not permit them to do, she says. Who is going to stop those girls?
