Organ donation hit by poor identi‡cation of brain death cases
Poor identication and certication of brain stem death or brain death cases is keeping the rate of organ donations at low levels in India, despite the availability of many potential cases, the Union Health Ministry has said.
Expressing concern over the rate of organ donations in the country remaining at less than one donor per million population in a year, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) asked health authorities in States/Union Territories to identify each potential brain death case admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and inquire whether the potential donor had pledged for organ donation. If not, hospital authorities should make family members aware of the opportunity to donate organs before the heart stops.
Issuing a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) under the provisions of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994, the DGHS said the doctor on duty in hospitals, with the help of the transplant coordinator, should make necessary inquiries after the brain death cases are certied by the competent authority.
Requesting every hospital to facilitate and monitor the certication of brain death cases to ensure compliance with the THOTA Act and Rules, the Health Ministry asked hospitals to install ‘Required Request Display Boards’ at strategic locations conveying the message to the public that in the unfortunate event of brain death or cardiac arrest, donation of organs and tissues — like kidney, liver, heart, pancreas, eyes, skin and bones etc. — could save lives.
Going by the transplant data, a total of 16,041 organs, mostly kidneys, were donated in 2022. Delhi topped the country with 3,818 donations.
Both Kuki-Zo and Meitei groups on Friday held events across Manipur and in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to mark one year since the beginning of the ongoing ethnic con®ict in the Northeastern State between the two communities, with several Kuki-Zo and Meitei organisations calling for peace and making their case before the Centre.
While the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) in Churachandpur held a prayer service in the morning to honour people from their community who had been killed in the violence so far, civil society organisations in Imphal Valley such as the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI) along with other similar outts passed a resolution calling for a plan for permanent peace in the State. Events were also held by Kuki-Zo bodies in Kangpokpi, with a candlelight
Members of the Kuki-Zo community stage a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Friday.
vigil being taken out in both the hill districts for the people they had lost in the con®ict so far.
The ethnic con®ict in Manipur began one year ago on May 3 between the valley-based majority Meitei people and the hillsbased Scheduled Tribe Kuki-Zo people in the immediate backdrop of a Manipur High Court order that directed the State government to consider the inclusion of Meiteis in the ST list.
In the one year since, over 221 people and at least
a dozen security personnel have lost their lives, thousands have been injured and over 50,000 people internally displaced. In addition, at least 31 people from the Meitei community and 15 from the Kuki-Zo people are still missing.
On Friday morning, the Kuki Students’ Organisation-Delhi NCR held a protest gathering at Jantar Mantar, which was attended by hundreds of people. Later in the day, Meitei civil society organisations based in Delhi held a similar demonstration at the same location. Both protests called for a return to peace, accountability, and justice for the people of Manipur.
The KSO’s Delhi chapter also sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister, arguing that the community will need the Centre to set out measures for their selfadministration, in order for the healing process to begin. The Kuki Inpi Manipur also sent a memorandum to the Centre setting out a four-point agenda.
This included demands that the bodies yet to be returned to them be done as soon as possible, establishment of measures to ensure the safety and security of the Kuki-Zosand expediting a political solution for the ongoing crisis.
In a joint statement, several Meitei civil society organisations insisted that the “root cause of the Manipur crisis is the nefarious trifecta of illegal immigration, poppy plantations for illicit drug trade and armed Chin Kuki militancy”.