Saving lives is noble, pledge to donate organs

This picture has been used for representational purpose

While most of us will applaud an organ donor or the family of one, personally, organ donation is rarely something we consider important. A report in this paper spoke of two women who donated organs to their kin, giving both desperate recipients a new lease of life.

Indians mostly don't think twice about donating to a dear one, yet baulk at the idea of donating post death.

Statistics compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that India rates at the absolute bottom of the list on organ donation despite having the world's second-largest population. This ought to be a matter of shame. While in India the donation rate is 0.05 to 0.08 per 10 lakh people, in the West, it stands at nearly 70 to 80 per cent.

It is clear that India needs a paradigm shift in its attitude towards organ donation. A report from 2015 stated that around five lakh people die in the country every year waiting for an organ.

While there has been a marginal rise in donations ever since the formation of the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre in 2001, the numbers are still abysmally low.

Experts say a major hindrance is the lack of awareness, religious beliefs, ignorance and the inability to make crucial organ donation decisions in grief. To counter the last point, one can register with the National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation and keep reminding one's next of kin of this, so that there is no ambiguity regarding one's intention to donate after death.

While the Maharashtra government stands in second place on organ donation, the numbers are still dismal. The government needs to seriously step up awareness programmes. It is time we normalised organ donation. It needs to be reiterated that there is nobility in saving a life, or several.