Bangalore: Motorists who wish to donate their organs after they die can now carry a sticker in their driving licence, affirming their pledge, thus making it easy to harvest organs in case of fatal accidents or untimely death.

Bangalore’s Electronic City RTO and NGO Gift Your Organ are launching the initiative on Monday to issue ‘special’ driving licences to motorists who have pledged their organs. The licence will be affixed with a green sticker which says the holder has pledged his or her organs.

"The NGO first proposed this idea. The government said it should be taken up on a pilot basis. We are initially launching this initiative in the Electronic City RTO," said transport commissioner T Sham Bhat.

R Ashoka, deputy chief minister and transport minister, told TOI: "We will soon implement it in RTOs across the state. Organ donation needs a big fillip in the state; the health department is backing us." The NGO said the initiative will go a long way in promoting organ donation and ensure that the pledge of those willing to donate their organs is followed.

From 2007 till date, only 38 people have donated their organs in the state; 1,072 people have pledged between 2008 and January 2012 with the Zonal Coordination Committee in Karnataka. But 25–30 people register themselves every month with ZCCK as those in need of organ donation.

Sameer Dua, founder and chief catalyst of Gift Your Organ, said: "There have been 1,13,952 applicants for driving licences in Karnataka in January 2012 alone. Even if 50% of them pledge their organs, 55% of the demand can be met."

"Every day, four to five people are declared brain dead in Bangalore alone. If all their organs can be harvested, the huge gap in the demand and donation will be bridged," said Raj Sethia, director, project, Gift Your Organ.

SHOCKING NUMBERS
1.5 lakh patients need kidney transplant every year. While only 3,500 get live donations, 200 get by way of cadaver donations and 6,000 undergo dialysis. The rest die

38,000 eyes are donated each year, while the requirement is in the range of two lakh

1.4 lakh road–accident deaths occur every year in India. 93,800 of the victims end up being declared brain dead