People's participation, awareness key to encourage organ donation: Choubey

Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey on Monday said people's participation and awareness are the key to encourage organ donation in the country.

Noting that several myths and misconceptions were attached to organ donation, Choubey urged people to come forward and donate organs without fear.

"People's participation and people's awareness are the key for encouraging organ donation," Choubey said.

He was speaking at the silver jubilee function of The Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA), 1994 organised by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO).

Choubey said people's participation has to be ensured for this noble cause and children have to be made aware of it from the beginning.

He urged other departments of the government to be involved in this movement to encourage organ donation.

He also urged the states to share their data with NOTTO so that the National Donor and Recipient Registries can be maintained at the central level.

"This will allow fair and seamless allocation of organs and tissues to recipients across all societal divides.

"The final aim of a central digitized organ allocation system that ensures a transparent allocation to recipients, both rich and poor, can only be achieved through updated data of all states and hospitals on the national database," he said.

Choubey also unveiled the silver jubilee copy of 'The Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA), 1994' and launched an online system for 'Million for a Billion' pledges.