In the latest episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi narrated stories of 10-month-old Aalin Sherin Abraham whose family decided to donate her organs. He also spoke of Delhi’s Lakshmi Devi who travelled to Kedarnath last year after a heart transplant, West Bengal’s Gaurang Banerjee who had been to Nathu La pass twice after a lung transplant, and Rajasthan’s Ramdev Singh who is excelling in sports after a kidney transplant.This is at least the third time that the Prime Minister has spoken about organ donation and transplantation, with previous instances also seeing a surge in the number of pledges and donations. Over the years, ongoing awareness drives have resulted in an increase in deceased organ donations. In fact, the country saw its highest number of transplants using organs from deceased donors in 2024 — the last year for which data is available. There was an increase of 16% in the number of such transplants as compared to the previous years, taking the total number to 3,403, according to data from the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO).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.Also Read | Three cadaver donations in a day offer hope as thousands await transplants in MumbaiThe 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.Story continues below this adBesides, 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.Story continues below this adWhat’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.