More and more women are queuing up for the surgical procedure that will restore their hymens and keep their virtue intact in the eyes of their future in-laws and husbands. Hymenoplasty had clandestinely begun eight years ago in this city. Of late, however, such surgeries are on the rise.

Young Gujarati girls turn up with the sole intention of 'keeping their future in-laws under the illusion that they are virgins', said cosmetic surgeon Hemant Saraiya here.

'Two out of the seven girls who came for hymenoplasty to me said they were sex workers who wanted to get married. One of them didn't want her in-laws to know that she was not a virgin. 'The other didn't want her future husband to find out that she had had a premarital affair,' said Saraiya.

He described it as a simple surgery that was not too painful for patients. 'I operated the first patient eight years ago, but five patients came during the last couple of years,' he said.

Plastic surgeon Bijal Parikh said that people were very inquisitive about the surgery although only two patients actually came to him for hymenoplasty.

A middle-aged woman from abroad approached Parikh for the surgery because she wanted to gift the regained virginity to her husband on their 20th wedding anniversary.

Sociologist Gaurang Jani, for instance, holds medical professionals responsible for 'not educating people' in order to profit monetarily from such a gender-biased operation.

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