This is the second World Blood Donor Day on the road for activist Kiran Verma. This year, with a placard on his hand that urges people to donate blood, Mr. Verma is on his way to Siliguri, West Bengal's picturesque gem nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, from Malda. His aim is to walk 21,000 km to create more awareness about blood donation.
"We cannot be complacent about this. Every day more than 12,000 people fail to get blood in India due to which more than three million people died. During the second wave of COVID-19, this reality hit home even harder as almost every person went through plasma crisis. The fear to donate blood must be tackled immediately," Mr. Verma said over the phone from a highway dhaba en route Siliguri, where he halted for dinner.
Mr. Verma said he decided to dedicate a couple of years of his life to reset the idea that Indians do not have a culture of donating blood. He began his current journey on December 28, 2021 in Thiruvananthapuram. In 2018 too, Mr. Verma travelled 16,000 km across India, covering more than 6,000 km on foot, to get people to donate blood.
