Raj wins awards but logs only 12 cadaver donations since ’25

Jaipur: Rajasthan may have won two national awards in 2025 for organ donation and public awareness, but the state has shown little progress in improving actual transplant outcomes. Since 2025, only 12 cadaver organ donations have been recorded in the state, and just two of those were reported in 2026.The gap between recognition and results is stark. While awareness campaigns have earned praise, the state's public health system has not expanded its transplant capacity in any meaningful way. SMS Hospital in Jaipur remains the only govt hospital in Rajasthan with a full-fledged cadaver organ donation and transplantation programme, apart from AIIMS Jodhpur. Other govt medical colleges have yet to make any significant contribution. Despite the availability of doctors, the state govt has not adequately prepared these institutions for cadaver organ donation and transplantation. This has limited the state's ability not only to retrieve organs but also to transplant them in time. Since Feb 5, 2015, Rajasthan has reported 81 cadaveric organ donations. From these 81 donations, 286 organs and tissues were donated. These included kidneys for 150 patients suffering from chronic kidney disease, 70 liver transplants, 35 heart transplants, nine lung transplants, two heart valves, two pancreas transplants, and corneas for 18 patients. A senior health department official said, "We are taking measures to develop more centres for cadaver organ donation beyond Jaipur." According to the official, medical colleges in Ajmer, Kota, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Bikaner have been developed for organ retrieval. However, retrieval alone does not solve the problem. The organs must be transplanted in hospitals equipped with cadaver transplant facilities, and such infrastructure remains limited. At present, apart from private hospitals, only SMS Hospital in Jaipur and AIIMS Jodhpur have the facilities required for such transplants. No other government hospitals in the state are fully equipped to perform them. Hospitals need modular interconnected operation theatres with HEPA filters, a separate emergency operation theatre in addition to two transplant theatres, a high dependency unit, ICU support, specialised equipment, laboratory facilities and other critical infrastructure to run organ transplant programmes. The lack of this infrastructure has become a major bottleneck in Rajasthan's transplant system. In 2025, the Centre asked the Rajasthan government to provide detailed information on the state's organ transplant infrastructure and practices, including data on government and private hospitals capable of performing multi-organ transplants such as liver, kidney, heart, lungs and pancreas.