Women form two-thirds of organ donors in India but lag behind when receiving them. What drives this gender bias, apart from social conditioning and lack of financial independence?
All across the globe, there is stark gender disparity as far as live donation is concerned. (Photo credit: News9Plus)
When it comes to organ donation, India is a sexist nation. But it isn’t alone. All across the globe, there is a stark gender disparity as far as live donation is concerned and India isn’t any different.
Recently, organ donation was in news with former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s daughter Rohini making headlines by donating a kidney to her ailing father.
Multiple reasons – psychological, patriarchal and socio-cultural – come together to perpetuate the bias against women when it comes to live donation of organs.
The Ahmedabad-based Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre, and Dr HL Trivedi Institute of Transplantation Sciences, the largest public sector transplant hospital in India, have an active high-volume transplants programme.
A July 2022 study led by Dr Vivek Kute at the Institute brings to the fore some startling findings. According to the study, the most frequent female donors are mothers (33.7 per cent), wives (20.1 per cent) and a few daughters (0.4 per cent).
For couples, 90 per cent of donors come from wives. This could be because of socio-cultural conditioning in a male- dominant society as well as financial dependency on husbands.
Dr Harsha Jauhari from Delhi’s Sir Gangaram Hospital points out: “The number of transplant cases in India is about 11-12,000 per year. This includes both live donated and those which are cadaver donated.”
Of these, he says, about 7,000 are kidneys, livers are about 1,500 and then there are those for heart and lung etc. Most of the transplants are kidney transplants because God has gifted us with two kidneys.
Experts ascribe various reasons for the stark disparity when it comes to women receiving organs through live donations. There are cultural aspects that expect females to nurture society and hence expect them to come forward to save the life of their progeny, their husbands. Then there is always a strong bond between the mother anc her son or daughter that the mother is always, always ready to donate for her progeny.
Dr Reeta Dar, a counsellor with Mohan Kidney Foundation, says: “Taking a vital organ from a breadwinner is something which threatens the entire family. There are psychological reasons, there are social reasons, and there are financial reasons. And then, there are security needs too. A woman feels secure when she donates an organ for her spouse. She feels she will have better acceptance in her in-laws’ home.”
Dr Jauhari points out how in most households, women’s health isn’t given priority. “Only when she is at the last leg of her health than she goes to the hospital,” he points out.
Blaming it on patriarchy, Dr Dar says, “A woman is supposed to look into the needs of others and think that others are more important than her. Males hardly come forward to donate organs. And even when they do, the female counterparts don’t expect them to donate organs.”
Mumbai resident Neena Mairale was diagnosed with stage V chronic kidney disease (CKD V) in June 2016. It was a case of either kidney transplant or dialysis for a lifetime for her.
Her husband was ready to donate a kidney to Mairale and accordingly, he underwent a set of tests too. But at the last moment, she dissuaded him from doing so. They have twin sons, one of them a special child.
“I am with one kidney, I will be on dialysis. If he is also on one kidney, who will look after me and my children? He has to be strong for that. So I think, if one person is strong, I will sacrifice myself and let him be strong,” Mairale told News9 Plus.
Mairale is not alone. Dr Dar recalls multiple cases and multiple reasons where women have come forward easily to donate organs.
But she also reminds, “Women form the majority of living organ donors but when it comes to deceased organ donation, it’s males who donate many organs.”
In fact, thousands of patients in India are awaiting donors but not finding them. Doctors say it is the deceased donation that needs to be increased, which will automatically solve the gender disparity in organ donation.
The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) was set up in 2013 by the Union Health Ministry. It plays a vital role in spreading awareness on the topic of organ donation. Says NOTTO director, Dr Krishan Kumar, “Our aim is to change this programme, which is lopsided towards the live donation, towards deceased donations.”
Says Dr Kumar, “There are a few myths associated with organ donation in our society. I would like to involve religious leaders. If they start spreading awareness and become our torch bearers in this cause, I am very hopeful, things will change for the better.”
(This story first appeared on news9live.com on Feb 11, 2023 and can be read here.)
