Like Sitaram Yechury and GN Saibaba, many are pledging body donation, but hurdles remain

Sukanta Das experienced a spectrum of emotions after Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury died on September 12. Das, 36, from Kolkata, who had been a member of the CPI(M)’s student wing in college, felt Yechury’s death was a huge loss for the party. But he also felt proud when he learnt that Yechury had donated his body for medical research. Das had already pledged to have his body donated.

“Even in death, you can serve humanity – that is what my politics and Yechury’s politics teaches,” Das told Scroll.

Volunteers and medical experts Scroll spoke to said there had been an increase in body donations. The donation of the bodies of public personalities such as Yechury and former Delhi University professor and human rights activist GN Saibaba have helped set a positive example.

But a lot of ground remains to be covered, especially since medical colleges that train students in anatomy and surgery are reliant on cadavers – the main purpose of body donation. This is different from organ donation, which is for transplantation into patients with failed organs.

A primary obstacle in body donation is religious sentiment. “People are uncomfortable with the idea that they will not get the body of their loved ones to perform last rites,” said Pallavi Kumar, the executive director of Mohan Foundation, a non-profit that promotes organ and body donation in India. “Even medical students often fail to convince their family members to donate their bodies.”

The absence of a central law to govern donations are also hurdles. Currently, organ donations are regulated by a central law but body donations are under the purview of state-level laws.

More positive stories

Das from Kolkata said he was inspired to pledge his body to be donated because of a family friend who runs a non-profit that promotes the cause.

“From a very young age, I saw him going door-to-door to encourage people to donate their bodies after death,” said Das. The friend would explain that instead of cremating the body, it would be put to better use in medical research.

“It seemed only logical that I should donate my body,” said Das. “I have been lucky that my family supports me.” After getting married, Das said his wife also decided to pledge her body to be donated.

Rajeshwari Prakash, a Delhi resident whose father had pledged his body for donation, said the support of relatives and friends is important. Prakash, whose father KR Shekhar died in December 2022, said he had two wishes: “that he should not be admitted to a hospital, and that his body be donated”.

Her father, said Prakash, believed that the purpose of a human body should not be limited to just the lifespan of a person.

She said that an uncle had also donated his body and that smooth the way for her father’s wish to be carried out. “It was easy for my mother to get closure because there was a precendent of body donation in my family,” said Prakash.

Stories like those of Shekhar and Das have become more common over the years. Kamal Khurana, the general secretary of Delhi-based non-profit Dadhichi Deh Daan Samiti, told Scroll that in the 27 years since his organisation was founded, he has noticed a marked change in attitudes to body donation. “We often run awareness campaigns where we get religious and spiritual leaders to promote the cause,” said Khurana. “That has helped a lot of people get rid of stigma.”

The change is evident in the numbers.

In 2024, the Samiti facilitated the donation of 57 bodies to medical colleges in the National Capital Region. A decade ago, that number was 15.

Khurana said the number will increase: since 2012, nearly 20,000 more people have registered with his organisation pledging to donate their bodies. This impact will not be visible overnight, said Khurana. “If a person registers today, the numbers might reflect 20-25 years later,” he said.

Sheetal Joshi, professor of anatomy at Delhi’s Lady Hardinge Medical College, said wider awareness is needed. “We need more positive stories to set examples – and ambassadors,” she said.

For instance, Joshi pointed out, there was a surge in eye donors in the 1990s after actor Aishwarya Rai pledged to donate her eyes. “This sort of campaign reaches a much wider audience,” said Joshi.

Medical training

At the Lady Hardinge Medical College, where Joshi is the nodal officer for body and organ donation, there are presently 22 cadavers for research and training. This meets the National Medical Association guidelines, which prescribes one for every 10 medical students.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi has received 70 cadavers in the last two years, which is sufficient to meet the requirements of the students, said an associate professor at the institution.

But other medical education and training institutes in Delhi are grappling with a shortage of cadavers – and the situation could be worse in colleges located outside cities.

Over the last five years, 24 bodies have been donated to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, a professor of anatomy at the hospital’s affiliated Vardhaman Mahavir Medical College, told Scroll. The college can admit up to 150 undergraduate students in a batch.

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences, which is linked to Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, faces a shortage too. A student who requested anonymity said the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences has received 18 bodies since 2019. The college admits 100 students every year to its MBBS course.

To make up for the shortages, medical colleges depend on unclaimed bodies, said Joshi. These bodies are not always in the ideal condition for dissection and research, she said. Since the cause of death is often unknown for unclaimed bodies, they could also pose an infection hazard for students.

“Also, it means that colleges in places where there are fewer unclaimed bodies do not have access to enough cadavers,” Joshi said. “For example, colleges in Mumbai have enough cadavers because they get a lot of unclaimed bodies, but that is not the case with rural or interior areas.”

The absence of a uniform system is a hindrance for body donation, said Anil Kumar, director of the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation, the health ministry’s apex body for procuring and distributing organs. A person can register for body donation in one state but might die in another state. “Unless a centralised system is in place, getting the body becomes a procedural issue,” said Kumar.

Khurana of the Dadhichi Deh Daan Samiti has seen how this can become a problem. In Delhi, for instance, a certificate of natural death by a hospital is enough for a family to donate a person’s body. But in Uttar Pradesh, police verification is also required. “Many families do not want police involvement after a death in the family,” Khurana said.

Organ donation is regulated by the Transplantation of Human Organs Act passed by the centre in 1994. But body donation falls under the jurisdiction of state laws, because health is a state subject under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. As a consequence, the procedure for body donation varies from state to state.

The Transplantation of Human Organs Act had been passed under Clause 1 of Article 252 of the Constitution that allows the Centre to make a law on state subjects, if at least two states give consent for that. In this case, Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra gave the consent, said Kumar. The Act also says that any state willing to implement the law could do so by passing a resolution in its Assembly.

All states with the exception of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and the northeastern states, have done so, said Kumar. But state governments have not moved resolutions to have a central law passed on body donation.

“Earlier this year, we had recommended to the medical education department of the health ministry that a central law should be passed for body donation too, but not much has happened on that front,” Kumar told Scroll.

The absence of a centralised system also means that India does not have consolidated data on body donations. The website of the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation has data on organ donations and transplantation, but nothing on cadaver donations. A common database would ensure the proper distribution of bodies to medical colleges across the country, said Kumar.

Joshi of Lady Hardinge College agreed. Right now, the availability of bodies at medical colleges is contingent upon how active the anatomy department of an institution is. “It should not be a matter of personal endeavour, but something that is systemic and regularised,” she said.