THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: If things go as planned, the district will soon have a dedicated team of women blood donors. It is the Kudumbashree District Mission (KDM) which has pitched the idea of raising up a women volunteer army with the help of respective grama panchayats and neighbourhood groups. The project is expected to be rolled out during the 2019-20 annual plan period.
“An initiative of this kind was first floated by the District Mission in 2017-18. But only three grama panchayaths- Uzhamalackal, Amboori and Anad- had shown interest in implementing the same at that time,” said an officer with the Local Self Government Department.
According to the officer, though the Mission planned to implement the initiative across the district via Community Development Societies during the 2018-19 financial year, fund constraints forced the Kudumbashree to drop the idea midway.
Swathi S, KDM’s gender programme manager said talks were on with local bodies to implement the programme at their respective neighbourhoods. They have also been asked to allocate sufficient funds in their plan fund for the project, she said.
“It is up to the local bodies to decide whether to raise a blood donors group of women or not. If they come forward, then Kudumbasree will provide them with technical assistance also,” said Swathi.
The programme manager further adds that through such an initiative KDM eyes to achieve the twin objectives of promoting blood donation and identifying those women who had problems like malnutrition, anaemia and others.
“When this project was first launched several women had come forward with their intention to take part in the campaign. But when they were asked to undergo donor screening, a majority turned out to be unfit for donating blood,” said Swathi.
According to her, it was decided to put in place a mechanism in which the women who were found to be unfit for blood donation were provided with nutrient supplements and make them fit for blood donation.
Meanwhile, All Kerala Blood Donors’ Association general secretary PM Jaffar said that as women, in general, were prone to malnutrition and anaemia, hospitals mostly send them back.
He further adds that the rate of women participation in blood donation camps is also minuscule.