India Records 20,138 Organ Transplants in 2025: Key Numbers and New Initiatives

India performed 20,138 organ transplants in 2025, the highest number ever recorded in a single year. The figure was announced on 3 August 2026, the 16th Indian Organ Donation Day, at a national event in New Delhi organised by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The government also launched a set of new initiatives to make donation easier, more transparent and more widely available.

2025 in numbers

• 20,138 transplants in 2025, up from 4,990 in 2013, roughly four times as many.
• Deceased-donor transplants rose from 837 in 2013 to 3,526 in 2025, more than a fourfold increase.
• India now ranks third in the world for total organ transplants, after the United States and China, and first for living-donor transplants.
• More than 5 lakh Aadhaar-verified pledges have been made since the national online pledge portal launched in 2023.
• Over 2.58 lakh people pledged their organs and tissues in 2025 alone, according to the NOTTO Annual Report 2025–26.

Even so, Union Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel noted that a significant gap remains between the number of patients who need an organ and the organs available. Deceased donation is still a small share of all transplants, which is why we look at why deceased donation still lags behind in India.

New initiatives launched

• Jug Jug Jiyo Abhiyaan: a year-long national awareness campaign to take the message of organ donation to communities across the country.
• e-Pratyaropan (e-प्रत्यारोपण): a single digital platform connecting hospitals, doctors, donors and recipients for registration, waiting-list management, organ allocation and monitoring.
• NOTTO mobile app: easier access to organ donation and transplant services and information.
• National Brain Stem Death Certification Guidelines: to standardise how brain stem death is certified across States and Union Territories.
• National Guidelines on Swap Transplantation: for cases where two donor–recipient pairs are not medically compatible with each other and exchange donors so both patients can receive a transplant.

A growing national network

India's organ donation system now includes NOTTO, five Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisations (ROTTOs), 26 State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisations (SOTTOs) and nearly 1,200 registered hospitals. Union Health Secretary Punya Salila Srivastava said the NOTTO–ROTTO–SOTTO network now covers 31 States and Union Territories.

Transplant services are also expanding in public hospitals:

• Ten new AIIMS institutions now offer kidney transplants.
• AIIMS Jodhpur, AIIMS Bhubaneswar, AIIMS Patna and AIIMS Rishikesh have begun liver transplants.
• AIIMS Bhopal has started heart transplants.

Help with the cost of a transplant

Under the National Organ Transplant Programme, the Centre gives States financial support for infrastructure, donor maintenance, organ retrieval and transport. Kidney transplantation is included in the Health Benefit Package of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), and economically weaker patients can seek help through the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi.

Recognising those leading the way

The event honoured States, hospitals, transplant professionals and donor families. PGIMER Chandigarh was named the best Regional Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (Northern Region), Tamil Nadu the best State for recording the highest number of deceased donors, Assam the best State in the North Eastern Region, and Delhi the best Union Territory.

Why 3 August?

Indian Organ Donation Day marks the country's first successful deceased-donor organ transplant, performed on 3 August 1994. Director General of Health Services Dr Loveneesh G. Krishna used the occasion to urge citizens to pledge their organs and tissues.

Myths still hold people back

Patel said misconceptions remain one of the biggest barriers to donation, stressing that no major religion forbids it and describing organ donation as "the highest expression of compassion". If you have questions of your own, our myths and facts section answers the most common ones, and our pledging guide shows how to register in a few minutes, free of cost.

Source: "India performs record 20,138 organ transplants in 2025; Centre launches new initiatives to boost organ donation", DD News, 3 August 2026.