Saving lives drop by drop

The blood donation camps held on the birthday of Rajendra Rathore, the Leader of Opposition in the Government of Rajasthan, have been included in the India Book of Records (IBR) for setting a new record for the ‘maximum number of people donating blood in a week’. Blood donation week was celebrated from April 17-21, 2023. The birthday was marked as the ‘Manav Seva Saptah’ (Human Service Week), wherein a total of 69,147 units of blood was collected through 400 blood donation camps held in the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat. Rathore started holding blood donation camps in 1993. A total of 45,000 units of blood was collected through various camps on his birthday last year. Before that, 25,000 units of blood was collected in 2012 at these camps.

“During my tenure as the Health Minister of Rajasthan, I had donated blood to an unknown poor person belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC). Actually, I was on a tour, when I saw a message in a group on my mobile phone that someone was in urgent need of blood. More inquiry revealed that the patient required the ‘O Positive’ blood, which is my blood group as well.

Immediately I offered my blood, which saved the poor man’s life. I instructed the doctors to not disclose this incident to anyone. After that, I started donating blood at every opportunity which came my way and held several blood donation camps too. When my followers learned about this aspect, they started celebrating my birthday like this.” Said Rathore.

The blood donation camps were held at 400 locations, spread in different districts of Rajasthan and a few places in Gujarat also, including Jaipur, Ajmer, Alwar, Barmer, Bharatpur, Bhilwara, Dhaulpur, Jalore, Jhunjhnu, Jodhpur, Seekar, Nagaur, Sirohi, Ganganagar, Hanumangarh, Bikaner, Kota, Pali, Tonk, Dungarpur, Banswada, Udaipur, Rajsamand, Jaisalmer, Churu, Surat, Vadodara, and many more. The prominent camps were held at Kesari Nandan Garden, Beawar (455 units), Shakti Canteen, Bahrod, Alwar (553 units), Goel Dharmashala, Bharatpur (523 units), Premvatika, Bhilwada (354 units), Shivam Infra, Bhilwada (387 units), Prem Garden, Viratnagar (402 units), Hotel Tirupati, Kotputali (635 units), Marudhar Hospital, Khatipura, Jaipur (571 units), and Nagarik Sadan, Jhunjhnu (486 units).

The highest amount of 1228 units of blood was collected at the camp held at Govt Hospital, Malsisar, Jhunjhnu. Adjudicator of the India Book of Records, Dr Raja Mookim verified the claim of the blood collection and declared the record. He also felicitated Rajendra Rathore, BJP MLA from Churu constituency, with the IBR certificate and a medal. He has won seven MLA elections in the years 1990, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, 2013 and 2018. Currently, he is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Government of Rajasthan. He has also been the Minister of Medical, Health and Family welfare (1993-98), Minister of Public Works and Parliamentary Affairs (2003-08), Minister of Health, Medical Education and Law (2013-16), and Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (2016-18).

The record for the maximum number of people who donated blood in a week was set by Rajendra Rathore of Jaipur, wherein a total of 69,147 units of blood was collected through 400 camps from all across the state of Rajasthan.