Statewide awareness campaign on organ donation from Aug 3 to 15
He said that the initiative be treated as a mass movement to help patients awaiting transplants.
At a state-level planning meeting in Mumbai recently, Abitkar reviewed ongoing organ donation efforts and called for intensified outreach to reduce public hesitation and change perceptions around donation. "The campaign should focus on building trust and spreading awareness at scale, so that patients in need get a new lease of life," he said.
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The drive will involve department-wise awareness activities coordinated by divisional transplant committees.
District-level programmes have also been planned, including felicitations on Aug 15 for families of deceased organ donors and recipients.
The meeting was attended by minister of state, public health department, Meghna Sakore-Bordikar, and public health dept ommissioner Dr. Kadambari Balkawade, among other officials from the public health and medical education departments.
Guardian ministers in each district will honour donor families and recipients on Independence Day. Officials stressed that public participation and inter-departmental coordination will be key to the success of the campaign.
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Time of India
21 hours ago
- Time of India
New heart, new hope: Teen transplant survivor heads home on Organ Donation Day
Mumbai: When 13-year-old Khansa Sayyed left Mumbai for Jalna on Saturday afternoon, she carried a new heart and the hope of returning to school next year. The child underwent a heart transplant at Fortis Hospital in Mulund on July 18, after a family donated their brain-dead son's heart at a Pune hospital. She was discharged on Indian Organ Donation Day on Saturday after making an "exceptionally quick recovery," said transplant surgeon Dr Satish Javali. Union health and family welfare minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, speaking at a function to felicitate organ donor families and state officials, announced that India achieved a milestone by performing 18,900 transplants in 2024. He stated that India is only behind the US and China in the number of transplants conducted annually. Despite this progress, lakhs of organ-failure patients continue to face long waiting periods for an organ. Khansa, for instance, received a heart after seven months of registering for a cadaveric or deceased heart donation. "My daughter went happily to attend the Independence Day parade at school last year, but was so exhausted and weak that she could never return to school thereafter," said her father Rahim Sayeed, a vegetable seller from Badnapur near Jalna. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like How to Ease Knee Pain Without Injections or Side Effects Read More Undo She was diagnosed with heart failure and registered for a heart transplant at Fortis Hospital in January. You Can Also Check: Mumbai AQI | Weather in Mumbai | Bank Holidays in Mumbai | Public Holidays in Mumbai At the Delhi function on Indian Organ Donation Day, union health secretary Nivedita Shukla Verma noted that India's organ donation rate remains under 1% relative to the population. Over 63,000 individuals currently need kidney transplants, and around 22,000 require liver transplants, she said. In Maharashtra, more than 9,000 are awaiting a kidney donation. Verma highlighted the govt's efforts to strengthen the transplantation ecosystem through NOTTO, which now has over 3.3 lakh registered donors. Meanwhile, in Mumbai, a volunteer who worked to create awareness about organ donation saved 10 lives when his family donated his organs. The volunteer, Kabir Mehta, 57, was declared brain dead after his brain aneurysm ruptured, and his family donated his heart, liver, kidneys, corneas, and skin at H N Reliance Hospital, Girguam, on July 29. Mehta and his wife, Dr Bijal, were part of the Shrimad Rajchandra Organ Donation Programme (SRODP) for over a decade and signed pledges years back. "Mr Mehta and his wife, Dr Bijal, were involved in spreading awareness about organ donation in Mumbai for over a decade," said an official of the Zonal Transplant Coordination Centre (ZTCC), which coordinates the sharing of organs between various hospitals. Deceased organ donations have improved in the city, with 59 donations recorded in 2024. So far this year, 32 donations have taken place. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Friendship Day wishes , messages and quotes !
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Statewide awareness campaign on organ donation from Aug 3 to 15
Pune: Maharashtra health minister Prakash Abitkar has directed officials to implement a statewide awareness campaign on organ donation from Aug 3 to 15. He said that the initiative be treated as a mass movement to help patients awaiting transplants. At a state-level planning meeting in Mumbai recently, Abitkar reviewed ongoing organ donation efforts and called for intensified outreach to reduce public hesitation and change perceptions around donation. "The campaign should focus on building trust and spreading awareness at scale, so that patients in need get a new lease of life," he said. You Can Also Check: Pune AQI | Weather in Pune | Bank Holidays in Pune | Public Holidays in Pune The drive will involve department-wise awareness activities coordinated by divisional transplant committees. District-level programmes have also been planned, including felicitations on Aug 15 for families of deceased organ donors and recipients. The meeting was attended by minister of state, public health department, Meghna Sakore-Bordikar, and public health dept ommissioner Dr. Kadambari Balkawade, among other officials from the public health and medical education departments. Guardian ministers in each district will honour donor families and recipients on Independence Day. Officials stressed that public participation and inter-departmental coordination will be key to the success of the campaign.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Mind the Gap: How free bus rides are changing the lives of women
Shobha, the mother of a daughter who needs fortnightly hospital visits for a chronic kidney ailment, is talking about how her life changed after the Karnataka government introduced free bus rides for women in June 2023. Women travel by a bus in Bengaluru after the Karnataka government launched the 'Shakti' scheme which provides free bus travel for women across the state.. (PTI) 'For me, using an auto was out of the question. Even the bus fare was expensive,' the Bengaluru-based home-maker said. 'Now if I can save ₹50, I can buy some fruit for my daughter.' Since she stopped having to buy tickets on the bus, Shobha said, she has saved ₹40,000 in the post office—money she is keeping aside for her daughter's education. Shobha is speaking at a conference to launch a report on the impact of free bus fares across India. The study by Sustainable Mobility Network, a coalition of 20 organisations that focus on clean, equitable and accessible transport systems, and Nikore Associates, an economics research and policy advisory think-tank, finds that subsidised bus travel schemes are a 'transformative policy intervention for advancing women's urban mobility.' In a country where the bus is the primary mode of transport for three in four women in cities and are a 'foundational element of women's mobility' particularly in lower-income groups, the subsidies provide substantial financial relief for women, finds the report. Hazira Leena, a beautician in Bengaluru, spoke of how earlier she would take an uber to go to clients. Now it makes sense for her to hop on the bus which costs nothing. Her savings? At least ₹7,000 a month. Across India, in cities that have fully subsidized fares and even those that are only partly subsidized (Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur), women are saving between 32% to 53.5% of their monthly transport expenses, finds the report. This money is being ploughed into family budgets for childrens' education, healthcare and emergency funds. But the bus is also expanding opportunity. Rama Gera who works with women waste-pickers at Bhalsawa on the outskirts of Delhi spoke about a woman who had developed terrible allergies sorting through waste but had no choice but to keep at it because as a single mother she had no other source of income. With a pink ticket on the bus, she now commutes the 7-kilometre distance to reach the middle-class colony where she has taken up part-time work in four or five households. Ticket to ride Free bus travel(HT file photo) In October 2019, the Aam Aadmi Party became the first government in the world to introduce free bus travel to enhance women's mobility and safety. That idea has caught on and subsidized bus fares for women have now been implemented in Karnataka, where it was a poll promise of the Congress government, Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, and Telangana. Earlier this week, Chandrababu Naidu announced free bus rides for women in Andhra Pradesh, scheduled to roll out on Independence Day. Partly subsidized fares of 50% have also been rolled out in cities in Maharashtra including Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur. In all these states, this much is clear: More women are taking the bus. In 2019 in Delhi, women were just 33% of commuters on the bus. In 2023, it was 42%, finds research published in March this year by Harshita Jamba and others for WRI India, an independent charity that works on socially equitable development. Over 60% of the 2,000-odd women interviewed in that study said they used the bus for work and education, another 16% were for medical visits, household shopping and accompanying children. The further they went, the greater women's access to opportunities in study, jobs and healthcare, found the WRI study. An earlier study in 2017 by Girija Borker found that women students in Delhi University would rather take admission in colleges where their commute would be shorter, even if they had got admission into higher ranked colleges further away from home. Now, women are able to travel further and more frequently, and students are benefitting the most. The link between free bus rides and women's employment is, as yet, mixed. Cities with well-functioning bus systems, such as Bengaluru and Hubli, show higher employment gains. In Mumbai with limited bus fleets and peak-hour ticket shortages, only 3% of women reported employment improvement. There are safety concerns, including poor lighting in bus-stops. Delhi also reports a problem unique to it where women complain that drivers whiz by when they see too many women at the stop. 'It's not like the fare is going from their pocket, but they won't stop if they see too many of us,' said Rinku, a domestic worker in Delhi. There is open resentment too from paying male passengers who heckle women for being 'freeloaders'. In a post that went viral in January this year, a man from Bengaluru asked why all women, regardless of their income, travelled free. Cost-benefit analysis Delhi Transport Corporation's (DTC) first woman driver Vankadarath Saritha, at Sarojni Nagar DTC Bus Depot, in New Delhi. (HT file photo) Savings, an increase in ridership, access to greater opportunities and a possible boost to employment are all the undeniable benefits of subsidized bus travel. But these come at a cost. In Delhi, government estimates are ₹1,200 crore a year. In Karnataka, the cost of the Shakti scheme which crossed 500 crore riders earlier the month is ₹12,614 crores. In Andhra Pradesh, the projected cost is ₹2,200 a year. In Delhi, a new BJP government headed by chief minister Rekha Gupta has announced tweaks to the existing scheme that will replace pink tickets with a new Aadhar-linked pass that requires proof of address so that it's limited to Delhi residents. This would exclude those who live in surrounding areas like Gurgaon and Noida as well as marginalised women who lack formal documents. But suggests Avinash Dubedi, programme head for transport, WRI India, perhaps we need to look at subsidised bus tickets as a service. In our crowded, choked cities, the social and environmental benefits of public transportation in terms of reducing vehicular traffic and bringing down emissions cannot be over-stated. It's a goal that needs to be expanded, not shrunk. Savings on public transport expenditure benefit not just the individual woman but her entire family. 'Daily bus fares determine whether women can work or study,' said Mitali Nikore, founder of Nikore Associates. But, she adds, subsidies cannot work alone without corresponding fleet expansion or improvement in safety. 'Gender-inclusive cities need comprehensive policies and infrastructure investments, not just fare subsidies.' Please don't look away Hidaya, a 31-year-old Palestinian mother, cradles her sick 18-month-old son Mohammed al-Mutawaq. (Omar Al-Qattaa / AFP) One of my endeavours in writing on gender is to highlight positive stories of hope and achievement rather than simply report on crime and violence. But this week's photographs of sick and starving children are so horrific that they simply cannot be ignored. The situation in Gaza is dire. Everybody is suffering. But those paying the heaviest price are mothers and their children. In the middle of a 'man-made starvation', to use the World Health Organization's term, 1,000 people have been killed since May by Israeli forces while seeking food in Gaza. These starving people must now choose between getting killed while getting aid, or letting their families die without it. Food and aid is available in trucks waiting at the border. But distribution is under the control of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that allows only a trickle through just four sites, opened on average for 11 minutes. Over 100 aid organisations are saying their own humanitarian workers are starving. Journalists and stringers for media organisations have no food. Mothers must choose how to apportion scarcely available food. Over 20% of pregnant and breast-feeding women are malnourished, some severely. Please don't look away.
