India observed the 16th Indian Organ Donation Day on 3 August 2026, a national occasion led by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) to honour donors, promote organ donation, and spread awareness across the country. The day commemorates the anniversary of India’s first successful heart transplant, performed on 3 August 1994 at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, by a team headed by Dr Panangipalli Venugopal. Since 2010, the day has served as a platform to dispel myths about organ donation and encourage citizens to pledge their organs after death.
The Historic Transplant of 3 August 1994
Before 1994, an Indian needing a heart transplant had no option but to travel abroad, a treatment most patients with end-stage heart disease could not afford. That changed when a team of 20 surgeons, led by Dr Panangipalli Venugopal, head of the Cardiothoracic Sciences Centre at AIIMS, performed India’s first successful heart transplant on 3 August 1994.
The donor was a 35-year-old woman who had suffered a brain haemorrhage and was declared brain dead. Her family agreed to donate her heart, which was matched with Devi Ram, a 40-year-old heavy industry worker suffering from cardiomyopathy, a disease that weakens the heart muscle. The surgery, which lasted about 59 minutes, succeeded because the Transplantation of Human Organs Bill had received the President’s assent just weeks earlier, on 7 July 1994, legally permitting organ transplantation in the country.
The recipient, who was expected to survive barely three months, lived for 15 more years after the surgery. This single milestone proved that brain-death organ donation could work in India and laid the foundation for the country’s entire transplant programme.
Dr Venugopal (6 July 1942 to 8 October 2024) was one of India’s most celebrated cardiovascular surgeons. Born in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, he joined AIIMS as a student and later rose to become its Director from 2003 to 2008. Over his career he performed more than 50,000 heart surgeries, received the Padma Bhushan in 1998, and is remembered as the pioneer who put India on the global map of cardiac care.
Why the Day Is Observed on 3 August
Indian Organ Donation Day was first observed in 2010, but until 2022 it was held on 27 November. The date was shifted to 3 August from 2023 onwards so that it directly coincides with the anniversary of the country’s first successful deceased-donor heart transplant in 1994.
The day is an occasion to honour the selfless contribution of deceased organ donors and their families, clear the misconceptions that surround organ donation, and motivate citizens to pledge their organs after death.
A single deceased donor can save up to eight lives by donating organs such as the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and intestine, while tissue donation of the corneas, skin, bone and heart valves can improve the lives of many more people. In many countries including India, World Organ Donation Day is separately observed on 13 August.
The Legal Framework: The Transplantation of Human Organs Act
The foundation of organ donation in India is the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA), 1994, passed to regulate the removal, storage and transplantation of human organs for therapeutic purposes and to prevent commercial dealings in organs. The Act was amended in 2011 and 2014.
Key features of the Act include the legal recognition of brain stem death as a form of death, which makes deceased organ donation possible. It prohibits the buying and selling of organs and prescribes strict punishment for organ trade. Living donors, normally restricted to near relatives, may donate under defined conditions. The 2011 amendment expanded the definition of “near relative”, included tissues along with organs, and provided for the setting up of organ retrieval centres.
In India, organ donation after death is possible mainly in the case of brain stem death, where the brain stops functioning irreversibly but the heart continues to beat with ventilator support. After brain death, up to 37 different organs and tissues can be donated, whereas after natural cardiac death only tissues such as the cornea, bone, skin and blood vessels can be retrieved.
What Is NOTTO?
The National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) is the apex body that coordinates, regulates and promotes organ and tissue donation and transplantation across India. It functions under the Directorate General of Health Services of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and is headquartered in New Delhi.
NOTTO was established in 2014 under the mandate of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues (Amendment) Act, 2011. It works through a three-tier network: NOTTO at the national level, Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisations (ROTTOs) at the zonal level, and State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisations (SOTTOs) at the state level.
The organisation maintains a national registry of donors and recipients, allocates organs retrieved outside a region, trains transplant coordinators, and runs nationwide awareness campaigns. It is comparable to bodies such as the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) of the United States and the transplant organisation of Spain.
How Organ Donation Works in India
Organ donation in India happens through two routes: living donation and deceased donation.
In living donation, a person, usually a close relative, donates while alive. Indian law permits a living person above 18 years to donate a kidney or a part of the liver to near relatives, and in special cases out of affection or attachment with the approval of an authorisation committee.
Deceased donation follows a strict, legally defined process. A panel of doctors, two of whom must be from a government-approved panel, certifies brain stem death, and the test must be conducted twice with a gap of six hours. After the donor’s family gives written consent, organs and tissues are retrieved in the hospital and preserved. Suitable recipients are then identified from the national waiting list, and organs are transported, sometimes through special “green corridors”, for transplantation.
Under the law, the family’s consent remains essential, which is why experts repeatedly stress that a person’s decision to donate must be discussed with family members during their lifetime.
To pledge organs, citizens can register on the NOTTO online pledge portal, which is linked to Aadhaar. A pledge is not binding on the family, but it makes the donor’s wishes clear and guides the family’s decision at a difficult time.
India’s Progress and the Road Ahead
India’s transplant ecosystem has grown rapidly over the past decade. In 2025, the country performed a record 20,138 organ transplants, up from 4,990 in 2013, a more than fourfold increase. India now ranks third in the world in total organ transplants, behind the United States and China, and first in living donor transplants.
The record figure was announced on the occasion of the 16th Indian Organ Donation Day in 2026, alongside several new initiatives. These include the Jug Jug Jiyo Abhiyaan, a year-long nationwide awareness campaign, the e-Pratyaropan digital platform for donor registration, wait-list management and organ allocation, the NOTTO mobile application, and new National Brain Stem Death Certification Guidelines and National Guidelines on Swap Transplantation.
Public participation is also rising. More than 5 lakh citizens have pledged their organs through the Aadhaar-linked national pledge portal since it was launched in 2023. Under the One Nation, One Organ Allocation policy introduced in 2023, the government removed the upper age limit, domicile requirement and registration fee for patients seeking organs from deceased donors, and moved towards a single national waiting list.
Challenges That Remain
Despite this progress, India’s deceased organ donation rate remains below one donor per million population, far behind countries like Spain, which records roughly 48 donors per million. Deceased donor transplants rose from 837 in 2013 to 3,526 in 2025, but still fall far short of demand, and thousands of patients wait for kidneys, livers, hearts and lungs every year.
The biggest hurdles are systemic rather than social. Brain stem death certification is not yet widely practised, transplant infrastructure and trained manpower remain limited in many states, and the network has yet to reach all corners of the country. Since the country records nearly 1.73 lakh road traffic deaths every year, a large pool of potential deceased donors exists, but many transplantable organs are still lost because donation is not identified or family consent is not obtained in time.
Addressing these gaps, expanding awareness and building trust in the system remain central to the government’s effort to make organ donation a mass movement, so that the promise of one donor saving up to eight lives is fulfilled for more patients across India.
Key Takeaways
- Indian Organ Donation Day is observed on 3 August every year and is led by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO).
- The day has been observed since 2010, initially on 27 November, and was shifted to 3 August from 2023 to mark the anniversary of India’s first successful heart transplant.
- India’s first successful heart transplant was performed on 3 August 1994 at AIIMS, New Delhi, by a team headed by Dr Panangipalli Venugopal.
- NOTTO, established in 2014, is the apex body for organ donation and transplantation in India and functions under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- Organ donation in India is governed by the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, 1994, which legally recognises brain stem death.
- A single deceased donor can save up to eight lives, and India performed a record 20,138 transplants in 2025, ranking third globally.
