BSF’s second line of defence: Organ donations

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 13

The Border Security Force (BSF), India’s first line of defence against the enemy, today offered another kind of defence to the people with 1,500 of its personnel pledging their organs for donation.

The certificates of pledge were handed over by the BSF to Health Minister JP Nadda in a gesture the Government described as “encouraging”, hoping it would promote the lagging organ donation movement in India.

These pledges come at a time when the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO), the apex central body tasked with promoting organ donation, has been struggling to promote the trend. Since its inception in 2011, NOTTO has received just about 43,000 pledges of donation from people, with the state governments not cooperating enough with the movement.

So much so, even the new organ transplantation Act which relaxed organ donation norms is waiting to show results. Only 10 states and six UTs have so far adopted the 2014 rules framed under the new law.

Coming against this backdrop, the BSF gesture has shown the Centre some ray of hope. “The gesture is a great initiative by BSF and will go a long way in spreading awareness about organ donation. BSF has been safeguarding our borders for 50 years and is now doing another service to the nation. Organ is a national resource and not even one should be wasted. I again call upon all Indians to pledge to donate organs after death and save lives. Let organ donation become a national movement,” JP Nadda said today.

Deficiencies in India’s organ donation sector are huge. Where 1.8 lakh kidneys are required for transplants every year, only 6,000 kidney transplants are actually being done. The yearly demand for livers is 30,000 but transplants being conducted are just 1,500. Where 50,000 people suffer from heart failures annually and could be saved with heart transplants, only 20 heart transplants were done in 2014, as per Health Ministry data.

Even for treating corneal blindness, donated eyes are falling short of demand. India needs one lakh corneas annually but just 25,000 are available. Nadda said in view of India’s rising Non Communicable Disease burden, organ donation requirement will only increase in the future.

Accordingly, the Government has simplified organ donor rules and procedures which are available on the NOTTO website. NOTTO now even maintains a registry of available organs to help those in need. A 24x7 call centre with toll-free helpline number (1800114770) is in operation to answer sector-related queries.