THE landmark judgment in 1996 banning professional blood donation directed the Union of India and the State governments to take up the following steps urgently:
1. Establish blood transfusion councils at the Central and State levels.
2. License all blood banks.3. Stop professional blood donation.4. Consider the advisability of enacting legislation to regulate the collection, processing, storage, distribution and operation of blood banks in the country.
5. Provide income tax exemption to donations made to the national and State blood transfusion councils.
Except for the legislation, the government has complied with all the directives. Since the entire infrastructure for the transfusion councils was to be set up, and professional donation was to be banned, it took the government over two years to implement the order.
