Dimapur Bongs face herculean task arranging blood amid dengue crisis

DIMAPUR — With dengue wreaking havoc in Dimapur, Biswajit Sarkar, who leads an 11-member team that takes care of the blood arrangement for the people in need, can hardly get off his phone.

Talking to Eastern Mirror, Sarkar said that he, along with other members of the team, gets constant calls from desperate people looking for blood and that, unlike other years, there is a greater demand for blood this season.

Of late, the team, a wing of Dimapur-based society ‘Dimapur Bongs’, has been arranging seven to eight units of blood each day, which, Sarkar said, is far more than other years, when they would arrange an average of two units.

He also mentioned that, on average, he personally receives or makes around 40 calls daily related to the requirement of blood.

Ashim Debnath, the joint secretary of Dimapur Bongs, also disclosed that all the eligible members of Dimapur Bongs, and even their family members, have donated blood and, therefore, cannot donate again till the replenishment period is over.

Debnath said this could possibly be because of diminished immunity among the people, post the Covid pandemic. He went on to say that though the team members have been donating blood since 2016, they have never encountered such a scenario as the present.

Privacy concerns regarding the donors

On how the team makes the arrangement, Debnath said that once they receive a call, they go through their contacts for possible donors according to the blood group as well as the database they maintain with the names, contact details, blood groups, etc.

On questions about privacy concerns relating to the details of the donors, he said that the contacts of the donors are not made public: if someone needs blood, they need to call the team first, and the team connects the donors to the concerned person. The team makes their phone numbers available on the social media handles of Dimapur Bongs and updates the activities through a WhatsApp group.

He mentioned that there have been some publicly available databases of donors in the form of websites and apps, and despite the great help they are and people voluntarily adding their details there as donors, there have been times when people who never registered to any such websites or apps received calls for blood donation requests, indicating there have been privacy breaches.

However, according to him, no such case has been reported relating to the members of the organisation or the donors associated with it.

Fear and the many challenges

Sarkar and Debnath both maintained that people who can donate blood should do so voluntarily, especially during this time. At the same time, the duo remarked that, presently, they have noticed an increased number of women coming forward for the cause.

Talking about myths associated with blood donation and the challenges the team faces in their mission, Debnath said that many, who are physically, fit assume that donating blood would make them weak. A sizeable number of citizens try to excuse themselves by citing that they are not in good health as they are “simply afraid” of the processes involved during blood donation, though they don’t like to admit it.

Other reasons, he said, are a general lack of will to donate, lack of awareness and ignorance of people about their own blood group.

Mentioning transportation as one of the main challenges they face, Sarkar said that many a time, when an emergency request for blood is received, many volunteers willing to donate blood cannot do so or reach in time due to lack of transportation.

It may be mentioned that Dimapur Bongs came into existence in 2015 to bring the youth from the Bengali community living in Dimapur under one umbrella, and work together for society in general and the community in particular.

Though it did not begin with a specific focus, Dimapur Bongs has expanded into a variety of social activities over the years such as conducting blood donation, aiding treatment of underprivileged patients, assisting needy families in marrying their daughters, student sponsorship and relief work, among others.

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