Organ donation gap: Deceased donor transplants go up after PM Modi push but demand higher

There has also been a surge in the number of transplants with organs from related donors at the same time.

What has been the impact of the PM’s emphasis on organ donation?

When the PM spoke about organ donation and transplantation on Sunday, it was not the first time the issue had found a mention in his monthly radio address. He had also referred to the issue in 2016, following which hospitals had reported an increase in the number of deceased donations.

The number of deceased organ donors crossed the 900 mark for the first time in 2016, dropping in the following years, before increasing to the same levels in 2022 after the second wave of the pandemic was over. There were 930 deceased donors in 2016, followed by 773 the next year, which increased to 941 in 2022, according to data from NOTTO. Consequently, the number of transplants with organs from deceased donors also increased in 2016, with the numbers reaching almost the same level in 2018, and crossing in 2022. There were 2,265 transplants using organs from deceased donors in 2016, dropping to 2,110 in 2017, and increasing back to 2,254 in 2018. The number of deceased donor transplants increased to 2,694 in 2022, according to the data. These numbers have kept on increasing ever since.

After another mention by the Prime Minister in 2023, a survey of 1,093 people found that 82.9% respondents were more willing to pledge and donate organs after listening to the episode. The government has since introduced an Aadhar-linked platform for pledging organs. “We are inspired by the PM’s campaign … he had raised this issue on Mann ki Baat previously as well. There is a need for everyone to join the initiative and create more awareness about how many lives we can save by donating organs,” said Dr Anil Kumar, director, NOTTO.

Why do we need more deceased donations?

There is still a huge shortfall in the number of patients in need of a transplant and the number of organs available. There is an estimated need for 1.75 to 2 lakh kidneys each year but there were just 13,476 kidney transplants in 2024. When it comes to liver, heart and lungs, there were 4,901 transplants in 2024 as against the estimated need for around 50,000. And, there were only 44 pancreas transplants in 2024 as against the estimated need for 2,500 a year.

Besides, organs such as heart and lungs are harvested only from deceased donors.

Importantly, the deceased organ donation rate in India continues to be very low at 0.77 per million population, below the rates reported by neighbouring countries such as Thailand (6.21), China (4.5), Sri Lanka (3.38), and Japan (1.18). There are 48 deceased donations per million population in Spain, which has one of the highest deceased donations. This is especially concerning, considering that there are around 1.73 lakh deaths due to road traffic accidents each year in the country, most of whom are eligible to be organ donors.

What is the government doing to promote it?

The national regulator NOTTO has been implementing several measures to increase organ donation and transplants such as doing away with the requirement to register in the domicile state or age limit for receiving an organ. It is also working on creating a national portal and a uniform policy for allocation of organs, ensuring greater transparency and reducing wastage of organs through coordination with the national network.

“There is a digital waiting list where the details of anyone in the country in need of organ transplant is added and allocated as per policy. This is a very transparent policy and anyone in need of an organ can get it through this network,” said Dr Kumar.

What’s the statewide pattern for deceased donor transplants?

Tamil Nadu is the state with the highest number of deceased donor transplants, making it one of the biggest organ transplant hubs in the country. Tamil Nadu recorded the highest number of kidney and liver transplants using organs from deceased donors. It was also the state with the second highest numbers, with around 1,750 kidney and 800 liver transplants. Delhi tops the charts when it comes to living donor transplants — and by a huge margin. Delhi conducted nearly 2,500 kidney transplants and nearly 2,000 liver transplants with living donors. There were only a handful of each performed using deceased donors.