On October 18, 2019, MOHAN Foundation conducted an awareness session on organ donation at Accenture, Unitech Signature Towers II, Sector 15, Gurugram. Mr. Abinash Pandit (Team Lead, Accenture Operations) took the initiative to organize the session. He happened to attend the organ donation session conducted at Geodis on Aug 14, 2019 while on a visit to that office. The talk motivated him so much that he decided to organize it in his office at Accenture. Dr. Muneet Kaur Sahi was the resource person for the session and Ms. Shafia Hameed accompanied her.

 

Accenture is a multinational professional services company that provides services in strategy, consulting, digital technology and operations. Accenture’s India journey started in 1987 when Accenture became the first global management consulting organization to start operations in the country. Accenture also has offices and operations in more than 200 cities in 54 countries. Accenture's current clients include 92 of the Fortune Global 100 and more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500.

 

Dr. Muneet introduced herself to the participants. She spoke about her association with MOHAN Foundation and its role in creating awareness in the field of organ donation since two decades. She began her talk by asking the participants if they had heard about organ donation. Many people raised their hands in affirmation. She then, explained the basic concepts of organ donation with the help of a simple powerpoint presentation.

 

She stressed on the need i.e. demand versus supply of organs, by showing a few statistics on organ donation. She also compared the donation rates of European countries like Spain & Croatia who are at 47 & 33 pmp respectively with India whose organ donation rate is mere 0.80 pmp (not even 1pmp). Lack of awareness, religious beliefs and superstitions and lack of faith in the healthcare system were some of the important reasons contributing to India’s low organ donation rate as explained by Dr. Muneet.

 

The audience were made aware that it is only in case of brain death that the solid organs and tissues can be donated. How to start a deceased donation programme in a hospital was also discussed. There are certain formalities that a hospital needs to fulfill before it can start a deceased donation programme namely, registering itself with the state authority and having a brain death committee. Salient features of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act 1994 were explained in brief and it was stressed that the main aim of the Act was to keep a check on commercial dealing of organs especially kidneys. Various myths around organ donation with their corresponding reality check were also discussed.

 

Close to 70 people attended the session and 35-40 donor cards were picked up.