The draft curriculum has been sent for expert review by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO) from health ministry.

Once approved, the health ministry will tell the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to incorporate the chapter on organ donation in the books of senior school students.

India despite being home to the world’s largest population has the lowest number of organ donations due to stigma and lack of awareness, among other reasons.

“We have framed the draft chapter on organ donation and transplant for school and medical students respectively. Right now, our organ transplant experts are reviewing the chapters as to what kind of information has to be given to school students. Basically, it will be for senior school students. Once the draft gets finalized, the ministry will communicate to NCERT to incorporate the chapter,” said an official aware of the matter.

Queries sent to health ministry spokespeople did not elicit any response.

“The ministry is taking several steps to speed up organ donation by providing information, tele-counselling, and help in coordination for organ donation. Boards on organ donation are displayed outside ICUs and strategic locations in the transplant/retrieval hospitals,” said the official mentioned above.

The move comes in the backdrop of government’s “one nation one organ donation policy” which will be implemented across India.

The government has decided to do away with the domicile requirement of state for registration of patients requiring organ transplantation from deceased donors.

Also, as per the new government guidelines, the upper age limit of 65 years for eligibility for registration to receive deceased donor organs has been removed. Now, a person of any age can register for receiving deceased donor organ.

A total of 15,561 organ transplants took place in 2022, as per the data available from NOTTO.

Doctors say that every year hundreds of thousands of patients languish on waiting lists at top hospitals for life-saving organ transplants amid an acute shortage of donors.

Till last month, there were a total of 4,49,760 organ donors registered in the country as per NOTTO and 49,745 patients waiting for organ replacement.

Organs like heart, kidneys, eyes, pancreas, lungs and liver harvested from a braindead person can save at least seven lives and that at any given point of time in a metro city about 10 patients are referred to intensive care units as braindead.

In India, nearly 50,000 people need heart transplants, another 200,000 kidney, and 100,000 each for liver and eye transplants every year. But supply is far below demand.