Even as World Organ Donation Day was celebrated on Friday, Gujarat Media Club, a group of journalists from Gujarat, launched a programme involving a million pledges for cadaver organ donation.
The GMC has tied up with Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre and, Institute of Transplant Sciences.
At a programme organised in Ahmedabad, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that cadaver organ donation needs to be encouraged so that there is no need for live organ donation.
Nirnay Kapoor, president of GMC, told THE WEEK that, on the occasion of 75th year of India’s independence, there is a need to reduce the number of live organ donations as much as possible.
The GMC plans to reach out to a maximum number of people and ask them to take a pledge for cadaver donation. The media club intends to make use of social media and other modes of communication to reach the goal.
Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, who is also the state health minister, said that a data based on kidney transplants done by the IKDRC suggests that only 20 per cent transplants are through cadaver donations and rest are all live organ donations.
Through its campaign, the GMC will also educate the masses about the myths associated with cadaver organ donation and try to dispel it.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also joined the programme, virtually.
