Donating organ if dead in mishap

In a bid to boost organ donation which is quite dismal in India, an option has been added in the driving licence form to pledge the organs in case of death in any accident.

To begin with, the Transport Ministry has added a column for the purpose in the revised learning licence form. It reads: "I am willing to donate my organs, in case of accidental deaths" and asks the applicant to tick if willing.

The ministry sources said a symbol will be put on the driving licence, indicating that its owner has signed the organ donation declaration. The Health Ministry was pushing for this since 2011 as its officials said this single step would go a long way in helping quick harvesting of the organs from the road accident victims.

"Most of the road victims are young and health. Their organs are most suitable for harvesting. Once declared brain dead by the doctors, we can counsel families about the wish of the victim as given in the driving licence about organ donation," a Health Ministry official said.

Only recently the government signed a bilateral agreement with Spain, the world leader in organ doantions. In contrast, India has the higher rate of road accidents but the organ donation rate in the country is just 2.26 per million as per NGO Organ India, compared to 35.3 per million in Spain and 26 per million in the United States.

Take for instance the case of kidneys. The government data shows requirement of over one lakh kidneys every year but only some 5,000 transplantations are possible in a year. Similarly, only 1,000 liver transplantations are done in a year as against the requirement of over 30,000 livers.

In contrast, there are very large number of fatal road accidents and this shortage of the organs could be overcome if the victims willingly become the donors. In 2015, 500 deaths took place daily due to the road accidents. These are seen as potential organ donors.