A 27-year-old man Montu wanted to drive from Burari to Lady Hardinge Medical College in Central Delhi last week to donate blood for a thalassemia patient. On his way, he was stopped by the policemen who were manning the roads to enforce the lockdown.
Montu showed the policemen his blood donation card and asked them to let him reach the hospital to donate the blood. He did not get permission. Instead, he was sent back to home.
“It is 17 km drive from my house; it would have taken 20 minutes to reach the hospital. However, the local police constable patrolling on the road refused to honour my donor card. They asked me to go back and stay indoors else they would lodge an FIR against me for violating curfew norms,” Montu told Outlook.
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In another similar incident, a patient admitted in Fortis, Gurugram, was in need of blood due to very low platelets. A donor, who resides 3.5 km from the hospital, agreed to come to the hospital. However, when he left from his home, the police did not let him reach the hospital and was sent back home.
Voluntary blood donor groups in other cities have also complained that the police are denying them permission on the basis of the donor card.
A blood donor in Patna said the police threatened to beat him when he asked for permission to visit Keshav Hospital in Danapur, 7.5 km from his house, to donate blood for a heart patient.
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“I told a policeman about the patient's requirement but instead of granting me permission, he shouted at me and said, 'Don’t try to become smart, otherwise I will thrash you.' I felt sorry for not being able to help a needy patient,” the donor said.
Gauri Shankar, who runs a group ‘Ready to Donate’, has more than 750 voluntary blood donor members across the country.
He said he receives several calls for blood donation everyday but many of his members face difficulties in venturing out to donate blood.
“In some cases, we ask the patient’s family member to carry a requisition slip from the hospital and pick the donor from his home. Police constables allow with a hospital slip. They are dropped back after donation,” Shankar said.
Many patients who don’t manage vehicle for donors’ pick and drop face hardships as they have to look for other ways to manage blood. Shankar said police constables should be sensitized and directed to allow people carrying a donor card.
Blood banks issue donor cards to voluntary blood donors and it is valid for three months. It is not treated as an authorised pass for donors to commute freely. Donors say that if police start honouring the card, it will make things easy for them.
Blood donation is an essential requirement and the Union Home Ministry has permitted voluntary organisations to hold blood donation camps while maintaining social distancing.
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Outlook received a complaint from donors on April 16 that police in Patel Nagar didn’t permit to hold a blood donation camp. When contacted the SHO, he admitted that he was not aware of any such permission by the Union Home Ministry to hold donation camps.
“When the government permits all essential activities to be carried on during lockdown, the police should understand that any person who is going to donate blood is in fact going to save someone’s life. What could be more essential than that?,” asked Shankar.
A thalassemia patient, Anubha Taneja-Mukherjee, who is also member of Thalassemia Patients Advocacy Group (TPAG), says that Delhi government has developed an online system to issue pass to people for essential work. However, the system hasn’t been designed to honour the donor cards.
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“A lot of donors applied for curfew pass on the basis of their donor card but the system refused,” Mukherjee said.
