Organ donation is considered a noble act as it saves many lives and helps many people recover from their disabilities. Gender inequality in India This is a common reason why most women do not get equal access to life-saving surgeries. According to the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organization (NOTTO), four out of five organ recipients in India between 1995 and 2021 have been men.

Moreover, 80 per cent of living organ donors in the country are women – mostly wives, mothers and daughters of organ seekers. This not only reflects the complex contradictions of the deeply ingrained patriarchal social mindset in India, but also highlights gender preferences and the economic roles played by both men and women.

Why are most organ donors women?

Dr Jaya Agarwal, Assistant Professor, Solid Organ Transplant, Amrita Hospital, told Times Now, “Socio-economic pressures play a major role in most cases, which leads to women taking on a caretaking role in the family. In our country, social conditioning right from childhood paves the way for this inequality. Most households have gender-based roles, where the male members are the main earners, while the female members are the nurturers.”

According to Dr Agarwal, societal expectations for women are much higher. “This dynamic of traditional upbringing and societal expectations forces women to donate organs in most cases, thereby perpetuating this imbalance,” he said.

NOTTO data also shows that for every woman who received an organ transplant during the period, there were more men. That is, out of 36,640 organ donations during this period, only 6,945 or 18.9 percent were women.

Breadwinner’s guilt

The data draws attention to the ‘breadwinner’s dilemma’, which makes men more reluctant to donate organs. Since men are the sole breadwinners in many families, doctors say the responsibility for family members – especially women – increases for men to donate their organs.

“Women are expected to provide emotional support, especially when a loved one is suffering. It is a psychological dilemma for the women in the family, which is further compounded by social expectations that force them to come forward as organ donors,” Dr Agarwal said.

“This incident highlights the underlying bias towards women’s well-being and health that still exists within the family structure.

Organ donation has a negative impact on women’s health

Organ donation, while safe in the long term, can be physically and emotionally stressful for women if they are forced to do so.

Alarming statistics show that most women in India suffer from anaemia and malnutrition. According to the National Family Health Survey 2022 survey, 182.9 million people in the country are malnourished – most of them women and children. Several states have reported a rise in anaemia rates among women aged 15-49 years. And so, organ donation being a complex surgery can have long-lasting and negative effects on the donor.

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