The organ donation programme initiated by Jeevandaan Foundation in Telangana is gaining ground in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The foundation has reached a milestone of retrieving 862 organs from 200 donors since its formation in the year 2013.
 
The latest achievement was an extraction of 4 organs from a 33-year-old brain dead woman. With this, foundation could save 1000 lives with organs from 200 donors since past 3 years. “We started this programme way back in 2013. Initially we faced certain hurdles as nobody was willing to come forward to donate the organs of their loved ones. However, thanks to the doctors and our team from Jeevandhaan who has made this programme a success by convincing families who have donated their organs to save the lives of the needy,” said V.S. Anuradha, public relations officer of Jeevandhaan.

As the awareness is growing day by day, the organ donation programme is picking up both in TS and AP. Earlier in 2015, Jeevandhaan recorded 146 donors who gave away 664 organs for transplantation. For promoting the organ donation in both the states, the foundation has roped in many organisations and film artists associations to propagate the programme. However the foundation feels that despite thousands of deaths taking place in India a very few come forward to donate the organs, but the scenario of live donors is picking up significantly.

In fact, organ donation is termed as donation of biological tissue or an organ of the human body from a living or dead person to a living recipient in need of a transplantation. Transplantable organs and tissues are removed in a surgical procedure following a determination, based on the donor's medical and social history, of which are suitable for transplantation.

In India, though the corneal donation programme has picked up well, the donation of other organs after death is slowly taking off. To curb organ commerce and promote donation after brain death the government enacted a law called "The Transplantation of Human Organs Act" in 1994 that brought about a significant change in the organ donation and transplantation scene in India. Many Indian states have adopted the law and in 2011 further amendment of the law took place. It is only after 2012, the cadaver donation of organs has picked up.

Among all the states in India, Tamil Nadu is the leading destination in organ donation with an ODR (Organ Donation Rate) of 1.80 per million population while Delhi has an ODR of 1.61 followed by Puducherry with 1.60 and Kerala with 1.05 ODR as per 2013 statistics. The states of TS and AP, Gujarat and Maharashtra are having an ODR of 0.47, 0.41 and 0.35 respectively.