Upkari Apartments pioneers organ-donation campaign in Dwarka
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Upkari Apartments pioneers organ-donation campaign in Dwarka

The campaign is meant to spread awareness about the entire process — how it can be done; what organs can be donated; whom to contact and other common questions. If you want to know more, contact the society office.

Upkari Apartments pioneers organ-donation campaign in Dwarka

Upkari Apartments in Sector 12, Dwarka, has started an organ-donation campaign to spread awareness about the entire process — how it can be done; what organs can be donated; whom to contact and other common questions. So far, 50 residents from the society have filled the pledge form for organ donation.

The pioneer of the concept, Inderjeet Singh, is a resident of Upkari Apartments and an employee of Air India.

He said, “My society, Upkari, took a decision to have centralised organ pledge system. Family members are often not in the state to inform the authorities about organ donation after a person passes away. Whom does one inform — it’s a big question? So we thought of taking some initiative, and a resolution was passed in our AGM meeting towards that end. Our society office is working to gather all the information we can on the process. Also, people who are interested could contact me. The forms are available at society office.”

Once the whole initiative takes a firmer shape, the idea would be spread to other societies as well. “We are going to approach other societies in Dwarka too. In our society 50 people from about 25-30 families have filled the pledge form. We are meeting others too to convince them about the necessity of doing so,” explained Singh.

The biggest roadblock to organ donation is religious sentiment, feels Singh.

“Since people are still touchy about the whole thing, so we are going to keep everything confidential.  Surprisingly, people above the age of 45 years are also coming forward. Senior citizens have also shown a great response. We had someone who was born in 1931 sign the form — this whole thing is difficult for us too emotionally,” he added.

Speaking on the initiative, a resident of the society, Shishir Das, said, “I am happy that our society has taken the initiative. This is a welcome move, and we’ll support it.”

Singh shared, “Sometimes, people are interested, but no one wants to discuss it. Not many parents want their kids to sign pledge. Wives want to have the consent of their husbands and other family members. So, a lot of work needs to be done, and we have to try harder to spread awareness.”

He continued, “In the Indian system, at present, if someone dies a natural death at home, only eyes can be donated. If a person dies in the hospital, eyes and valves of the heart can be used. For a brain dead individual, many parts of the body can be taken. So such things must be made known. That’s what we want to do through our initiative.”

Only two wished to donate their bodies so far.

Residents of other societies, too, are starting to talk.

Suman Malik , a resident of Youngsters Apartments in Sector 6, shared, “ If stats are to be believed, of the 45 million blind people across the world, 15 million live in India. The downside is that 75 per cent of these cases are of avoidable blindness, but due to the nation's acute shortage of donors, most of the cases either go untreated or inadequately treated. Through such initiatives, we could bridge that gap. I appreciate the move from Upkari Apartments.”