Addressing Gender Disparity in Organ Donation: An Analysis of NOTTO's New Policy
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: Social Development, Health, Social Sector Initiatives; National Bodies (NOTTO); Key Legislations (Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994).
Mains:
General Studies Paper 1: Role of women and women's organization; Social empowerment.
General Studies Paper 2: Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health; Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections and the performance of these schemes.
General Studies Paper 4 (Ethics): Ethical issues in healthcare, Gender Justice.
Key Highlights from the News
National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) issued new guidelines to address gender disparity in organ donation in India.
As per the new guidelines, women patients and female relatives of brain-dead donors will be given priority in organ allocation.
Main Issue: In India, the majority of living organ donors (63.8% in 2019-23) are women. However, the majority of organ recipients (69.8%) are men. This means, 'women donate more, but receive less'.
Organ donation in India is governed by the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA), 1994.
Currently, only about 10% of the required organs are available in the country. Lack of awareness is a major reason.
NOTTO has instructed state governments to create permanent posts for transplant coordinators in all hospitals and establish organ retrieval facilities in all trauma centers.
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