• last year
The list of people waiting to get donors is getting longer and longer. Is there a shortage of donors in our country? Or is something else? In Mumbai itself, 4000 plus patients are waiting for organ transplant, where if we go by record, only 200 out of 4000 may secure a donor by end of the year.

According to the data, the number of transplants only grew from 6,916 in 2014 to about 16,041 in 2022. It had further dropped to half of what it is now, to 7,443. If we go through the data from 2014 to 2022 further, the number of liver donors only increased from 1,327 to 3,911; kidney donors only increased from 5512 to 11705, heart donors from 53 to 243 and lung donors from 15 to 144.

According to reports, one person is added every 10 minutes to the waiting list of organ transplant. Though the Health Ministry has announced a series of steps to promote organ donations, which also includes doing away with the domicile rule; removal of age bar for registration of recipients; removal of fee for registration for transplant; easing rules on withdrawal of life support (passive euthanasia); facilitation of organ transport across the country.

In India, transplant and donation comes under the Transplantation of Human Organ and Tissues Act of 1994. Under this act, removal, storage and transplantation of human organs can only take place for therapeutic purposes. The act prevents commercial dealing in human organs, that is organ trafficking.

According to reports, in India a huge gap exists between patients who require organ transplant and the organ donors that are available. The Indian government has implemented the National Organ Transplant Programme to promote organ donation from deceased persons to increase the availability of organs for transplant. This aim with this programme was to bridge the gap between demand and supply of organs.

The challenges which the patients in India face is that they have to wait for years to get an organ. The one who suffers the most in this long waiting-list is the poor. Another challenge is organ trafficking, which means that human organs are illegally acquired by fraud, force or any other illegal means for money exchange with third parties.

According to the report by Justice Upheld, there is not much data available regarding those whose organs are removed. It is also very difficult to trace the sellers. The report says that these organ sellers are mostly from the urban slums and poverty prone districts. Organ trafficking is one of the most severe areas of exploitation in India. Low supply and high demand for organs has led to the crime of organ trafficking.

Let me tell you about a well known case of organ trafficking. Dr Amit Kumar who has made around 500 illegal transplants before his arrest. The foreigner labourers were treated as live donors with the promise of being paid Rupee 3 lacs.

#OrganDonor #HumanTrafficking #Trafficking #HealthSystem #MinistryOfHealth #Illegal #Donor #Organ #Transplant #Doctors #HealthNews

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Transcript
00:00 Hello everyone this is Aminah Ansari welcome to HW News English
00:04 The list of people waiting to get donors is getting longer and longer. Is there a shortage
00:10 of donors in our country or is there something else? In Mumbai itself, 4000+ patients are
00:16 waiting for organ transplant where if we go by records, only 200 out of 4000 may secure
00:23 a donor by the end of the year. According to data, the number of transplants only grew
00:29 from 6,916 in 2014 to about 16,041 in 2022. If we go through the data from 2014 to 2022
00:39 further, the number of liver donors only increased from 1,327 to 3,911. Kidney donors only increased
00:50 from 5,512 to 11,705. Heart donors from 53 to 243 and lungs donors from 15 to 144. According
01:03 to reports, one person is added every 10 minutes to the waiting list of organ transplant. Though
01:09 the health ministry has announced a series of steps to promote organ donations which
01:14 also includes doing away with the domicile rule, removal of age bar for registration,
01:20 removal of fee for registration for transplant, easing the rules on withdrawal of life support,
01:26 facilitation of organ transport across the country. In India, transplant and donation
01:32 comes under the Transplantation of Human Organ and Tissues Act of 1994. Under this act, removal,
01:39 storage and transplantation of human organ can only take place for therapeutic purposes.
01:46 The act prevents commercial dealing in human organ i.e. organ trafficking. According to
01:52 reports, in India, a huge gap exists between patients who require organ transplant and
01:57 the organ donors that are available in the country. The Indian government has implemented
02:03 a national organ transplant program to promote organ donation from deceased persons to increase
02:09 the availability of organs for transplantation. This aim with this program was to bridge the
02:15 gap between demand and supply of organs. The challenges with the patients in India face
02:20 is that they have to wait for years to get an organ. The one who suffers the most in
02:25 this long waiting list is the poor. Another challenge is organ trafficking, which means
02:30 that human organs are illegally acquired by fraud or force or by any other illegal means
02:36 for money exchange with third parties. According to reports by Justice Upheld, there is not
02:42 much data available regarding whose organs are removed. It is also very difficult to
02:48 trace the seller. The report says that these organ sellers are mostly from the urban slums
02:53 and poverty-prone districts. Organ trafficking is one of the most severe areas of exploitation
02:59 in India. Low supply and high demand for organs has led to the crime of organ trafficking.
03:06 Let me tell you about a well-known case of organ trafficking. Dr. Amit Kumar, who has
03:12 made around 500 illegal transplants before his arrest. The foreign labourers were treated
03:18 as live donors with the promise of being paid Rs 3 lakhs. It was alleged that Amit Kumar
03:25 had charged approximately $50,000 for each operation. He was arrested later in Nepal.
03:33 The report by Justice Upheld further revealed that organ harvesting is continuously growing
03:38 at an alarming rate. And this organ trafficking is likely to further increase in India in
03:43 coming years. The report says that brokers, doctors, transplant centres and drug companies
03:49 are the main beneficiaries in the kidney trade, which is even more than the kidney buyers.
03:55 The same report reveals that organ trafficking happens mostly through 5-star hospitals who
04:00 offer transplant tourism services. Now the question arises, if nobody, then who can solve
04:06 the challenges of human organ donation and controlling the organ trafficking? It is none
04:12 other than our Indian government. It is the duty and responsibility of the government
04:17 to fill the loopholes which exist in the whole process and make the strict laws against organ
04:23 trafficking.
04:24 That's all for this news report. For more such news and updates subscribe to HW News
04:29 English.
04:29 [music]

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