As many as 26 citizens of the city voluntarily pledged to donate their bodies after death. Following shortage of bodies for research work, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) conducted a body donation camp here on Friday.
At the camp, the AIIMS had offered free-of-cost lifetime medical treatment to those who signed the pledge to donate their bodies.
Ramesh Chandra Jain and his family members, including wife and two children, signed the pledge to donate their bodies for medical research after their death. Jain said he had come to know about the shortage of bodies for research work when his daughter, who is studying medical science, there was acute shortage of bodies for anatomy lessons. The Jain family therefore took the pledge to donate their bodies for medical research.
Ramesh Chand Jain, along with his wife Urmila, daughter Akanksha, son Anchal and his wife Smita, were also registered as donors.
On the occasion, Jain told media persons that those under 18 in the family were also keen to donate their bodies. However, they are not legally permitted to take the decision.
AIIMS Bhopal Director Dr Sandeep Kumar said "we expect more people to register in this willed body or anatomical materials programme. We would accept donation of human bodies, by various individual and institutions."
The programme is meant to assist in medical education, biomedical, forensic and other scientific research and development work. The body donation programme was being operated by department of anatomy, he added.
The donors who were registered on Friday, were mostly senior citizens. Welcoming the initiative, MP senior citizens' forum and confederation president SK Saraswat said "our organisation has found it tough to persuade people to donate their bodies. With this initiative at AIIMS Bhopal, we hope to get more to sign up for body donation." He claimed that about two dozen people would sign up in the coming week.
AIIMS Anatomy department Associate Professor Dr Sunita Athavale said this campaign in the long run would also motivate people for organ donation. For the moment, focus is getting people to register for body donation, after death.