Aarohi is borne out of a review (and is in response) of the Indian public health situation, which pointed to serious blood shortages - further seriously aggravated by the lack of appropriate infrastructure for enabling ‘safe blood transfusions’.
Being a country with a population of over 1.3 billion, India faces serious challenge in meeting blood requirements. Statistics show that in India there are 234 million major surgeries, 63 million trauma related surgeries, 31 million cancer related procedures and 10 million pregnancy related complication which require safe blood transfusions.
In addition to these requirements (which are possibly one off), there is a category where need is perennial. Conditions like Thalassemia, Leukemia and similar such hematological diseases have longer duration requirements.
While the first category has ‘healthcare’ support in terms of the medical delivery system addressing it – starting from hospitals recognising need and equipping itself, the second category is more ‘medicare’ in nature and need and therefore, has no institutional support. The ‘carrier of the disease’ has to fend for himself or herself, on an individual basis.
Further, the first category is financially supported. The hospital charges for all services including blood. And the patient is able to pay for it – either based on their own financial capability or an insurance supported mechanism. However, the second category has no such system and possibly, not possible to have it in place.
Thirdly, the carriers of the ‘perennial’ segment are, invariably, from the poorer section of the society as they contract these conditions due to ignorance and / or sheer inability to apply mind on such issues.
We believe this is where Aarohi comes to play, wherein it plays the role of a reliable intermediary who connects such needy with the large community of big hearted Voluntary Donors and ensures that these needy get access to safe blood / blood components.
