Govt working on introducing curriculum on organ donation to raise awareness

The government is working on introducing a curriculum on organ donation mostly likely in Class 9 or 11 in order to raise awareness among schoolchildren about the issue, sources said.

They said India has a very low rate of deceased organ donation compared to Western countries and an estimated five lakh lives could be saved annually by timely organ transplant.

India's organ donation rate, which is the number of deceased donors per million population, continues be less than 1 per million in comparison to countries like Spain, USA, Australia, Croatia.

"The numbers highlight the huge gap between the number of organs required and the organs available for transplantation. The reason being lack of awareness and myths associated with organ donation. To counter all these, the Union Health Ministry is working on introducing a curriculum on organ donation mostly likely in Class 9 or 11 in order to raise awareness about the issue,: an official source said.

The ministry is also working on a 'One Nation, One Organ Allocation' policy in consultation with states to come up with a uniform guidelines on registration, allocation and other aspects of organ donation.