With a view to cut down the gap between the ever-growing demand and shortage of organ donation in the country, the Union health ministry has proposed the ministry of road transport and highways to earmark a designated space on one’s driver licence indicating the driver’s “will” to donate organs after death.
The idea was mooted after the officials in the Union health ministry saw this model running successfully in the West. “The same practice is seen in the US and Spain. It has been really successful and we wanted to replicate it here as well,” Dr R.K. Srivastava, director-general health services (DGHS), told this newspaper. Dr Srivastava had visited the US to see the overall transplantation facility and found this method running successfully over there, after which a letter was written to the transport ministry to come up with such a provision in the drivers’ licences.
Dr Srivastava said that to start with, they have also asked the Delhi chief minister if the model can be replicated in Delhi first. “I shall take up the matter again with chief minister Sheila Dikshit and emphasise on starting with the practice in the national capital first,” he added further.
According to officials, such a provision could help sort out the problem of shortage of organ donation to an extent. “The critical cases-are mostly accidental. The pledge on the driving licence could help the relatives understand that the one who has died wanted to donate organs,” added another official in the ministry.
According to a doctor who did not wish to be named, it becomes difficult to make the relatives understand even if the person is brain dead. This provision could, therefore, help the doctors too as it will become a legally valid document for pledging organs.
India has the lowest organ donation rate in the world at 0.1 per million population. As per the transplant register centres, in India half-a-million people die from organ failure every year.