Only 0.08 per cent of Indians donate their organs to the needy as compared to 70-80 per cent of Spaniards and Belgians, health experts said on Saturday.
Every year 200,000 people in India need a new kidney and 100,000 need a new liver, but only two to three per cent of the demand for new organs is met, they said on the occasion of Organ Donation Day on August 13. The low proportion of organ donors in Indian population can largely be attributed to ignorance, superstition and an absence of conducive regulatory framework, said the experts.“It’s tragic that even after so much promotion of the idea, India lags so much in organ donation. There has been almost no improvement in the situation in the last couple of years,” said Ravinder Malhotra, Director of the Centre for Liver Transplant and Gastrosciences at the Saroj Super Speciality Hospital. “Children can also be made organ donors after parental consent. There is a need to explain and promote the entire concept of organ donation more,” he said.
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