Eighth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Chandigarh (Union territory of India) serves as the capital of the Indian states Haryana and Punjab. According to 2011 census Chandigarh has the population of 10.55 Lakhs. In Chandigarh, ROTTO is an organization that has been created by NOTTO Under the aegis of NOTP to raise public awareness for organ donation and to increase the cadaveric organ donation. ROTTO, PGIMER. The organ donation programme at ROTTO, PGIMER is showing promising signs of becoming a success story. 70 per cent of cornea donations are coming through the eye bank 30 percent of corneas are coming from voluntary donations, the organ donation programme at ROTTO, PGIMER is showing signs of becoming a success story. It is clear that organ donation is a topic which many have never been exposed to in any way, whether e in discussions with family or friends or from external communications and campaigns. People tend to feel uncomfortable talking about death and associated topics. As organ donation is often not within people’s sphere of knowledge or experience it is easy for people to distance themselves from the topic and believe that is it not something that will ever relate to them. They may struggle to understand how many people are waiting for organs and how their lives are affected in this way. This paper seeks to understand the awareness of the people on organ donation. This paper also examines the motivational factors, the current thinking trends on organ donation and transplantation. The present study is based on views of 70 individuals from villages of Chandigarh, India. As much as 83% of the people are aware of the concept of organ donation and 83% of the people think that lifestyle diseases is one of the main reason for organ failure in India as per the source. While on one hand 86% feel that the main aim of organ donation is to save some one’s life, one the other hand 43% of the people feel that the main reason that people resist to come forward for the cause is less awareness activities. Out of the total population about 83% supports that lifestyle disease results in organ failure and 14% ignores this fact and the remaining 2% have no idea about it. Organ transplantation resulting into disfigurement is a total myth among the population of India that in a way acts as barrier to motivate people towards the cause (23%) people out the population agreed on the fact that disfigurement may result due to organ donation or transplantation, 63% of them said that there is no relationship between organ donation and disfigurement in the body. Illiteracy among the population, false knowledge about the concept and religious beliefs comes up as the most prevalent reasons that act as barriers or resist people to step up and support, promote organ donation. There is urgent need to increase the number of the awareness generation activities in the Indian community and events like rallies and Street theatre for more sensitization of the public.