A silent revolution is on across the country and Madurai is playing a vital role in it. On January 1 this year, a group of youths owing allegiance to Jain Shwetambar Terapanth Society kicked off a mega blood donation drive (MBDD) in the city and led a nationwide campaign to increase awareness about blood donation. The effort is extraordinary because the exercise did not stop with a day’s activity in one city. Instead, it was decided to make each day a blood donation day and in the last ten months camps were organised uninterrupted every day in a different city or town.
Under this unique “Revolution@365” campaign, 27,871 units of blood have been collected so far.
Says Nitesh Kothari, the co-convener of MBDD and the man behind Madurai’s link to the project, “Since the start point for implementing the idea of at least one blood donation everyday was in our city, we have reserved the last three days of the year too to conclude the project.”
From Bardoli in Gujarat to Tezpur in Assam, and Sirsa in Haryana to Tirupur in Tamil Nadu, close to 400 blood donation camps have been held continuously in the last 308 days. The idea, says Nitesh, was to have minimum one camp a day anywhere in the country and on an average we were able to collect 90 to 100 units of blood either from a single or multiple camps.”
Blood has become such a commodity that many people think it has to be compulsorily bought during medical emergencies, says Nitesh. Travelling to interiors of the country, he finds so many people still unaware of voluntary blood donation and the benefits accruing from it both for the donor and the recipient.
Cities like Chennai and Kolkata have contributed big by carrying the campaign at a stretch for a month. Chennai did through August and Kolkata is doing this month. The units collected are sent to the blood banks of government hospitals in respective cities and where there isn’t one, the blood units are donated to either Rotary or any other established service organisation.
The Terapanth Society youths numbering to 40,000 plus network as Akhil Bharatiya Terapanth Yuvak Parishad with 325 branches all over the country. “We strictly do social service and humanitarian duties and are apolitical,” Nitesh clears the doubt.
In fact, the Parishad holds the Guinness World Record for highest blood donation at multiple locations in a single day. In 2012, the mega drive was launched by cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and 96,000 units were collected. In 2014, actor Vivek Oberoi launched the second mega drive and 1,00,212 units were collected. The Guinness team is strict about every piece of evidence to support claims. “We could not provide CCTV coverage and letters for the one lakh-plus units that we collected and complete all the procedural formalities,” notes Nitesh. So, the Parishad’s record was capped at 87,059 units.
This year, the team decided to go for longest blood donation drive and struck upon the Revolution@365 idea, which has received appreciation letters from President Pranab Mukherji, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several State Governors and Chief Ministers, sports and Bollywood celebrities.
Such a massive drive may not be possible every year but we are confident that it will have a long lasting impact on peoples’ minds, says Nitesh. “We genuinely want to create awareness about blood donation. People have to feel for the cause and willingly donate. They should realise by donating blood they can save lives,” he adds. The objective of the parishad matches the government’s vision of making blood donation totally voluntary by 2020.
For this year’s unique initiative, the parishad has set itself with a target of at least 500 camps and a collection of 35,000 units of blood by December 31, 2016. They hope to inspire more people into blood donation by registering their effort with either India Book of Records or World Records India or Asia Book of Records.
Partnering with National Aids Control Organisation, National blood Transfusion council, the Union Ministry of Health and several State governments, the MBDD is all about awakening the donor in every individual. There are countless people in small towns and villages, says Nitesh, who have never donated blood and are not even aware how they can help others. “We hope our mega blood donation drive will motivate such people,” he adds.
Independent studies quote a shortage of 3 million blood units in the country and it is believed that the gap can be easily eliminated if only an additional two per cent of India's youth donates blood.
“There is an imperative need to encourage voluntary blood donation,” asserts Nitesh, “as a true service to mankind.”
Quote:
“Blood is not a gadget or a set of clothes that we have to pay for. It is a basic need which we should revere and willingly donate” -- Nitesh Kothari
