Niti Aayog working towards making India more organ donation-friendly; Rules may be eased

The NITI Aayog is working towards easing the process of organ donation and transplantation in India by simplifying regulations, removing legal hurdles, improving infrastructure and strengthening the database on organ availability to make the country more organ donation friendly.

The options being considered include moving from opt-in model to opt-out model for organ donation for deceased to address the huge demand-supply gap in the country and streamlining definitions across related legislations to remove legal hurdles while putting in place stringent checks and balances to prevent organ trafficking, a senior government official told ET.

The Aayog has kick-started discussions with the health and family welfare ministry to identify challenges impacting organ donations in India and will soon come up with a roadmap to address various implementation issues.


Organ donation and transplantation in India is governed by the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994 (amended in 2014) under the National Organ Transplant Programme.

Under the existing legislation, the organs of deceased donors can be used for transplant only if the persons, during their lifetime, have given consent or opted-in for organ donation after death. The opt-out system, on the contrary, means the deceased patient is presumed to have consented to organ donation unless proved otherwise.

“The government is looking at imposing timelines for approval to significantly reduce procedural delays, remove legal hurdles arising out of inconsistency in definitions under related laws, create a databank for organs available for donation, and increase awareness on organ donation and transplantation in the country,” said the official, who did not wish to be identified.

While the organ donation Act recognises brain-stem death as actual death for the purpose of organ donation, the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969 and Indian Penal Code, 1860 do not recognise brain stem death, making several potential donors ineligible for organ donation.

The government is of the view that there is a significant demand-supply gap for organ donation in India, resulting in death of a large number of patients in need of organ transplant.

India has among the lowest rates of organ donation in India, at 0.86 per million people, with 0.1% of the population donating their organs after death which is dismally low compared to 70-80% of people in Western countries who pledge to do so.

Industry estimates that more than 0.2 million kidneys and other vital organs are lost annually in the absence of active deceased donation, lack of awareness and motivation.

Government data shows that there were just 941 deceased donors in the country in 2022 compared to 930 in 2016, with 2,694 deceased transplants, as against 2,265 in 2016. This is miniscule compared to 16,041 transplants in 2022, of which 13,338 were living transplants.