Gender Disparity In Organ Donors and Receivers: Report

As per the recent study, four of the five living organ donors in India are women, and four of the five transplantations are received by men. The study reported by Times of India states that “for every woman who received an organ, four men got transplants in the country.” Health experts claims that the sheer difference in numbers are due to economic and financial factors, societal pressures, and infixed preferences.

Citing women”s outperformance on men in organ donation, Anil Kumar, Director of National Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) said: “Of the total organ donation in the country, 93% were living donors. This by itself is a statement that many organ donors in the country are women donors.”

A per the findings of the research paper published in Experimental and Clinical Transplantation Journal in 2021, there is a prevalence of huge gender difference in the country in matters of living organ transplantation. The evaluation of data concerning organ transplantation took place in 2019 points out that 80% of the living organ donors are women, majorly the wife or the mother, and 80% of receivers are men.

The report also highlight that key reason behind the ratio of more women donors are mainly due to socio-economical pressure entrusting in them with the role of caretakers and givers in the family wherein men are always positioned as the bread earners in most cases, so that they waver from undertaking any surgery.

(With inputs from Times of India)