What's drought got to do with blood collection, one could ask? Well, plenty, if you are a blood bank in Marathwada and Vidarbha, since blood donation through National Service Scheme (NSS) has declined this year, what with student attendance in colleges decreasing during the peak of summer.
"Over one lakh units of blood are collected across the state by the NSS on an average, but this year it has fallen down to 82,000 units of blood," said Dr Atul H Salunke, state liaison officer, NSS.
NSS is a voluntary association of students in colleges and universities that aims to involve them in community service.
While blood collection has remained fairly stable in cities like Mumbai and Pune, it has decreased in the drought-hit Marathwada and Vidarbha regions.
"We are in touch with the universities to see why this is happening," Salunkhe said. He added, "With the acute shortage of water, college attendance in some regions has fallen as students are helping their families fetch water from a long distance away. This could be one of the reasons."
Prof Babasaheb Bidve, an NSS programme coordinator at Mumbai University, said that the blood collected in the city through NSS has decreased marginally compared to the last year.
Dr Mahendrasingh Chauhan, the medical director at the Dattaji Bhale Blood Bank in Aurangabad, reiterated that this has been a noticeable trend over the past three years. "We are intentionally reaching out to other institutions like banks and spiritual groups to ensure that the blood supply in our banks is not affected. We are spending a lot of time in motivating donors," Chauhan said.
While the blood banks would depend on the blood collected from colleges during drives held on January 26 and other important dates, they are now focussing on increasing their penetration in the local community.
Units of blood collected by NSS in Mumbai
Year Units collected
2013-14 - 19,070
2014-15 - 25,686
2015-16 - 24,978
