Voluntary Blood Donation & Women

A very recently published article in the Times of India says loudly "Indian women don't believe in donating blood"and then goes on to state the following: "According to the first ever data bank on gender distribution of blood donors, India has among the lowest number of female blood donors in the world. Compiled by theWorld Health Organisation, the data bank says that of the 4.6 million donations in 2008, only 6% donations were by women. The rest 94% were male donors."

While one may not be able to challenge the figures, the conclusion drawn that Indian women dont believe in donating blood is not fair. We should not overlook the fact that women have, in a large number of cases, to be dependent on their male family members for taking them to the blood donation centres/camps. Besides as we know, a good number of women, especially the young girls, are anaemic- for which causes may be many but malnutrition is surely one of the major reasons.