National Voluntary Blood Donation Day is celebrated every year on 1st of October in India in an effort to share the importance and need of the blood in the life of an individual. It was first started observing in the year 1975 on 1st October by the Indian Society of Blood Transfusion and Immunohaematology, a non-governmental organization. The non-governmental organization was first established on 22nd of October 1971 under the leadership of Dr. J.G. Jolly and Mrs. K. Swaroop Krishen.

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What are the Objectives of National Voluntary Blood Donation Day?

Following are some of the main objectives of the National Voluntary Blood Donation Day including;

• To spread awareness among people regarding the importance of the voluntary blood donation.

• To achieve the target of voluntary blood donation to fulfill the need of needy patients.

• To store the donated blood in blood banks for any serious and urgent requirement.

• To emphasize and promote the self-esteem of blood donors through a lot of thanks.

• To motivate and encourage healthy people who are not interested in donating blood.

Donating and transfusing blood to the needy person has become a very important part of the humanity in the present modern health care system. It does not matter who is the donor or receiver, its only about the taking care of each others health. So donating blood without any expectation is a great humanity and important part of the life-saving process. You should not only donate blood to your relatives or friends, rather you can donate blood to voluntarily for any human being.

In order to prevent the blood transmitted diseases, it is mandatory to carefully investigate through advanced testing techniques such as nucleic acid testing of collected blood for preventing the life-threatening diseases like AIDS, Hepatitis-B, Hepatitis-C, syphilis, malaria and many more.

To make aware people towards the blood donation, several events are organized like awareness programmes, camps, and supplementary promotional activities.

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What is the Importance of National Voluntary Blood Donation Day?

Well, as we all know that blood is an essential component of the human life as it provides the nourishment to the body tissues and organs. The National Voluntary Blood Donation Day is celebrated to bring the changes across the society in order to follow the life-saving measures and prevention from some serious illness caused by the violence and injury, road traffic accidents, childbirth-related complications, and other conditions.

Safe blood donation helps in saving many lives of all ages every year. The states of India like Tripura, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra are considered as the national level voluntary blood donors.

It is necessary to celebrate the National Voluntary Blood Donation Day at a great level to remove the fear, misconceptions, and ignorance of the general public towards the voluntary blood donation campaign.

Several voluntary organizations of the country are paying their valuable time in order to encourage the youths/students, colleges, institutions, clubs/NGOs and etc.

Who Can Donate Blood?

According to the Drugs and Cosmetics Act 1940, there are some criteria for blood donor such as,

• Age: 18-60 years

• Weight: 45 kg or above

• Pulse Rate: 60 to 100/ minute

• Blood Pressure (BP): Normal

• Hemoglobin: 12.5 gm/100ml

• Body Temperature: 37.5-degree centigrade

Some Facts Related to the National Voluntary Blood Donation Day:

• National level voluntary blood donors states: Tripura, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu

• The highest level of voluntary blood donor state: Tripura about 93% in India

• The lowest level of voluntary blood donor state: Manipur

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