Indus Valley Times

By Susant Kumar Dalai

Bhubaneswar, March 4: An eight-year-old boy, whose organs were donated after his death, was on Monday accorded full state honours in Odisha capital Bhubaneswar.

The last rites of the donor, Subhajit Sahu, were performed in Bhubaneswar.

The guard of honour was accorded in the presence of Twin City Police Commissioner Sanjeev Panda and Bhubaneswar DCP Prateek Singh at Satya Nagar crematorium in Bhubaneswar.

Subhrajit Sahu, a resident of Kalpana area in Bhubaneswar, had been undergoing treatment in the hospital for the last three days after suffering from a brain seizure. As he showed no signs of recovery, the boy was declared brain dead by the doctors of the hospital following a series of tests on Saturday.

Despite the irreparable loss, the bereaved family members of the child came forward to donate his organs to save lives.

“I am proud of my son. He was brave. He died but saved the lives of many. I work in the healthcare sector. So I know how scarce human organs are. People die waiting for donors. So we took the decision to donate his organs,” said Subhajit’s father Biswajit Sahu.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on February 15 had announced that the last rites of those who donate their organs would be done with full state honours.

Speaking about the guard of honour, Police Commissioner Sanjeev Panda said, “We accord guard of honour for the deceased organ donors under the Odisha government’s existing policy. We hope more people will come forward to donate organs through this initiative.”

Full state honours mean all the arrangements will be done by the state government, which includes wrapping the body in tricolour and giving a 21-gun salute. The government will also give Rs 5 lakh from the Chief Minister’s fund to the relatives of the organ donors.

To facilitate the process of organ donation, the Odisha government in 2019 had set up the ‘State Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation’ and instituted the Suraj Award for organ donors in 2020.