Giving Birth To Hope

Chakraborty, a noted assisted reproductive technology specialist and a pioneer in the test-tube method of infertility treatment, is synonymous with the institute. He started the institute in 1995 with the Rs 3 lakh he got from his provident fund after he quit a medical teaching job. In under a decade, it’s become India’s premier infertility clinic where, among others things, Chakraborty, 73, and his dozen-strong team of doctors work on fertility treatments: assisted reproductive (test-tube method) technique and inducing ovulation in women who don’t produce eggs, among other things.

The school is always overflowing with patients: it has 12 beds but handles 300 patients a month on average. Handling infertility patients can be extremely dicey. At least two patients, both men, committed suicide after being told they would never be able to have children of their own. The second victim even accepted a donor’s semen for his wife but still killed himself. But Chakraborty’s clinic does offer counselling to patients coming for treatment. All this and more doesn’t really cost a bomb: the test-tube method costs around Rs 60,000. That’s not a big price for having a baby.