Blood donation in India

The first blood bank was established in Kolkata, West Bengal in March 1949 at the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health and was managed by the Red Cross.

Subsequently, the National AIDS Control Programme was launched which led to improvements in patient screening and hygienic transfusion procedures.

A public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court in 1996 to abolish the practice of selling blood which became effective on 1 January 1998.

[10] In 2018 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with support from its various institutions published a detailed report on the blood requirement in India.

It specifies accommodation, manpower, equipment, supplies and reagents, good manufacturing practices, and process control to be followed in Indian blood transfusion services.

[14] Dual licensing of blood banks by federal and state regulatory bodies was made mandatory in 1993, with a renewal required every 5 years.

[18] While the regulatory authority is entrusted with the task of drug regulation, NACO and NBTC are the technical bodies that frame guidelines for the practice of transfusion medicine.

[21] It documents the strategies for making available adequate resources, technology, and training for improving transfusion services apart from outlining methods for donor motivation and appropriate clinical use of blood by clinicians.

[13] A study conducted between 2009 and 2013 concluded a high rate of non-compliance on the part of blood banks on the quality and safety of transfusion services.

[27] Cases of transmission of infective diseases like AIDS due to substandard medical facilities and practices in blood banks continue to be relatively high.

[33][34] A 2011 study reported that a mere 6% of women donated blood, mostly due to physiological problems and low hemoglobin count.

[22] Other hurdles in increasing voluntary blood donation include the fear of pain and weakness after the procedure, and illiteracy.

One such ring gained national attention in 2008 when an emaciated man escaped from his captors near the city of Gorakhpur, in Uttar Pradesh.

[37][38] Blood donations reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily due to restrictions on travel and fear of contracting the disease at healthcare centres.