27 Crore People In India Don't Have Access To A Blood Bank Which Could Save Their Lives In An Accident!

Close to five lakh accidents happen in India each year killing 1.38 lakh people, the record which is the worst in the world. Can you imagine how many of them could have survived if they'd got blood and medical attention in time?

More than 64 Districts in 13 Indian states don't have a single blood bank which means as many 27 crore Indians don't have access to a blood bank.

But like all other areas of Public Health Infrastructure (PHI), the blood banks across the country are too thin and scattered. If we see the average, India has only a total of 2,708 blood banks which accounts for almost 46.5 lakh Indians per blood bank. This shows the gargantuan shortfall of the blood banks that we have across the country.

But 64 districts of 13 states which account for a population of almost 27 crore are unfortunately enough as they don¡¯t have a single blood bank in their respective districts.

Horrifying! Isn¡¯t?

But it¡¯s a fact.

With a total of 2,708 blood banks across the country with 1,024 and 1,684 blood banks under public and private operations respectively, the number looks quite formidable to give us an impression that all is hunky-dory as far as masses¡¯ requirement for blood banks is concerned.

But despite the numbers being quite significant, the answer is appalling as even now 64 out 675 districts in the country don¡¯t have a single blood bank, neither under public nor under private operations.

Another gory scenario is that in majority of the states, the numbers of private blood banks are twice or even more than that of blood banks owned by government which speaks volumes of the work done by various state governments over the years.

The major states with maximum districts without a single blood bank are: Chattisgarh with a maximum 13 districts followed by Jharkhand (7), Meghalaya (8), Bihar (6), Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur with 5 districts each, Uttarakhand and Assam with 4 each, Nagaland and Tripura with 3 districts each followed by Sikkim and MP (2 each), Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat (1 each).

The name of Gujarat in the list shows the quotient of rhetoric in talks our leaders do about the development of the state. The central government often passes the buck to state governments since Public Health is a state subject. But does that allow the Central as well as governments of various states to toy with lives of the masses?

If we gauge the current scenario, Maharashtra tops the list with 310 bloods banks, but the gap between the number of private and public blood banks (236-74 respectively) is massive which indicates that blood is only for rich and capable and poor will keep gasping for breath.

Tamil Nadu (300), Uttar Pradesh (242), Karnataka (193) and Kerala (183) are among the top states, but in these states too, the gap between public and private owned blood banks is huge.

Since the Public Health is a state subject, the state governments have to send proposals to Centre to seek help. But in 2015-16 only two states have sent proposals to Centre to seek funds under National Health Mission (NHM).

¡°Under NHM, for 2015-16, proposals were received from states of Madhya Pradesh and Assam requesting for support for 11 new blood banks,¡± reads the answer given by Shripad Yesso Naik, the minister of state in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MH&FW) in parliament on 18 December 2015.

After the Centre received the proposals, a total amount of 586.42 lakhs have been sanctioned for Madhya Pradesh and Assam. Rs 511 lakhs have been sanctioned to Assam to develop infrastructure and procurement of equipment in five districts; and Rs 75.42 lakhs have been sanctioned to Madhya Pradesh for the procurement of equipment for blood banks in five districts.

Majority of the road accidents in India take place on highways, but in year 2015-16, no state government in country sent proposal regarding setting up blood banks along highways.