'More to give' campaign to increase organ donation rate

A new campaign titled "More To Give" was launched here today with an aim to double organ donation rate from 0.5 per million of the population by 2020.
The nationwide campaign, launched on the occasion of Kargil Diwas with Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan as its ambassador, is aimed at sensitising people as well as encouraging them to pledge their organs in an effort to positively impact the well-being of the nation.
"Five years ago, the rate of donation was 0.05 per million, which increased to 0.5 per million. This was done without much efforts from the government, but we now have the system with us, so we are expecting the rate to increase," said CEO Fortis Healthcare Bhavdeep Singh.

At the launch, experts discussed the reasons for people shying away from this including various social and religious ones.
"One of the major problems people have with organ donation is the acceptance of the brain dead concept for the family. There is not much awareness among the society as well as the doctors," said Aarti Vij, Chief of Organ Retrieval and Banking Organisation at AIIMS.
Malvinder Mohan Singh, Executive Chairman, Fortis Healthcare blamed the infrastructure as another major problem.
"The donor and donee have to be located close as the life of organs used for transplantation is not very high. There should also be some better technology to increase the life of the organs," he added.