Over the past few years, India has been focused on improving health indicators across rural and urban areas. However, ensuring safe and adequate blood, which is fundamental to our healthcare system, still remains a huge challenge. Estimates suggest that India requires more than 15 million units of blood annually, although blood banks are able to manage barely 11 million units each year. Reportedly 84% of blood donations are collected through voluntary donors. However, reports from across the country reveal incorrect practice of considering near relatives as voluntary donors. According to World Health Organization (WHO) standards, a country requires blood units equal to one percent of its population. Experts believe that as per these standards, India is already far behind, but the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 has made it worse. The lockdown was imposed on 25th March and is presently continuing. As per government data on the National Blood Transfusion Council website: • The total donated blood had dropped from 38,189 units in February, 2020 to 26,741 units in March, 2020 • Only 3,037 units have been received in the first 10 days of April, 2020 • The number of blood donation camps have also come down from 473 in February to 46 in April so far Most blood banks depend on voluntary donors for their supply, for which donation camps are arranged daily across the country. However, due to the lockdown, such activities remain mostly suspended as mass gatherings are not allowed, thus affecting the stock of fresh blood. The voluntary blood donations have gone down by almost 80%. More so, the blood platelets have a shelf life of only 7 days, thus in absence of continuous supply, reserves are bound to dip. The most vulnerable people who need blood in our country are patients suffering from thalassemia, haemophilia and cancer, pregnant women and other individuals facing critical diseases or major accidents. The threat of COVID-19 and a shortage of blood has put these patients in grave danger. • India is considered the thalassaemia capital of the world. Every year more than 10,000 children are born with ‘thalassaemia major’ - the worst form of this condition. For such patients blood transfusions are the primary treatment. They need intravenous infusions of freshly drawn blood (collected less than a week ago) every 2-5 weeks. • India has the second-highest cases of Haemophilia in the world, which is the most common form of hereditary bleeding disorder. Haemophilia patients can bleed with or without any injury. As treatment they may need plasma infusions or the bleeding can be fatal. • As per studies, India ranks 3rd highest in reported cases on Leukemia or blood cancer, which affects more than 70,000 men and women in the country. Most Leukemia patients need blood transfusions during their care. • Estimated number of cancer patients in India is around 2.25 million. Cancer patients need blood transfusions to treat anaemia. Blood transfusions are also needed because of blood loss due to surgery or to counter the negative effects of treatments like chemotherapy. • More than half the women in India are anaemic and a majority of maternal deaths in the country are due to postpartum hemorrhage, which makes blood a critical component. Focus is entirely on prevention of COVID-19, due to which doctors fear that there may be neglect in other areas leading to greater health risks. Hospitals have pushed off surgeries to make room for Corona Virus patients due to which the demand for blood by surgeries have fallen, but in total the regular demand for blood and blood products by other patients is still staggering. According to Red Cross, there is no data or evidence that Novel Corona Virus is transmissible by blood transfusion, since it is a respiratory virus. Blood can be collected from individuals who are healthy keeping their travel history and contact history in mind. WHO has also stated that respiratory viruses have never been reported to be transmitted through blood or blood components and any actions taken to mitigate the risks are therefore precautionary. As the blood banks run dry, the Indian government has recently clarified that voluntary blood donation camps are allowed to be organised after following strict social distancing measures. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued detailed guidelines to ensure there is no shortage of blood and donors can come out during the lockdown to donate blood. The National Blood Transfusion Council has written to blood banks, hospitals and state governments to ensure adequate reserves as maintained. During this difficult and uncertain period, donors are afraid to come forward to donate blood. Measures to restore and gain public and donor confidence in blood donation are extremely important. Facts about Blood Donation during COVID-19 times: • Blood donation counts an essential travel • Blood donors are allowed to give blood voluntarily even during the lockdown • Donors can go individually but not in groups • Blood donation facilities are following social distancing measures strictly • Donor safety is ensured by use of mask and alcohol based sanitiser • Blood transfusions can’t spread coronavirus • Donors need to reveal their travel history during the last 28 days and history of recent flu like illness to the blood bank doctor during medical check-up before donating blood • Coronavirus patients can give blood after having fully recovered Many organisations are working to create awareness among the public about blood donations during this pandemic to gain their confidence. Efforts are being made to ensure the supply of blood to those in need does not break. One such organisation is Khoon. While people quarantine, Khoon is running to ensure there is enough blood in our blood banks. They have a national helpline number open for patients and donors (1800 890 6465) and are also taking responsibility of transportation of donors. Khoon is the largest network of emergency donors in India. Every two seconds someone needs blood. When a healthy donor decides to not donate blood, someone stands a chance of losing their life. The three most common myths that keep one from donating blood - 1. Myth - It causes fatigue Reality - Donors are given refreshments and can assume work in an hour 2. Myth - It reduces blood in the body Reality - Around 1 pint is taken, an adult has 8-12 pints of blood 3. Myth - Blood donation is a painful process Reality - Only pain is of the needle pricking the skin Any healthy person free from any active illness, between 18-65 years of age, weighing at least 45 kgs can give blood. The interval between two donations should be 3 months for males and 4 months for females. Donating blood is considered healthy for the heart. Every donor can save up to 3 lives. Millions of lives are saved through blood donations every year. Patients suffering from critical diseases were already facing hardships. The menace of COVID-19 has endangered their lives further. Social distancing does not have to mean social disengagement. Without human donors, there can be no blood. It is the responsibility of the community to donate and save lives of fellow human beings. COVID-19 has already claimed too many lives, It is time for humanity to step up and donate blood to ensure that no one else dies just because there was not enough blood. With a population like ours, there could never be a shortage of blood, if all eligible donors decide to donate blood regularly for those in need. Donate blood for a reason, let the reason be life. So, will you save a life today, or may be three? -Written by Eman Khan (Winner of 'Call for Writers' Essay Competition by KhoonKhas in Adult category) (University of Calcutta, Kolkata) " As Eman's essay highlights, there are a host of things that govern decisions surrounding blood donation during a pandemic and nationwide lockdown. Keeping this in mind, within 3 days of the lockdown, KHOON established effective communication for all blood donor registration, blood request and emergency cases through its toll-free helpline. It is happy to have helped facilitate 1,500 blood donors during the lockdown, ensuring complete hygiene and safety of everyone who come forward to donate. We have together impacted more than 4,500 lives from March 24th to May 1st via the helpline. "

Only yesterday, there was an advertisement by Lenovo which called out the very poor student-teacher ratio of the nation and with the outbreak of a global pandemic, situations of our education system are only going down the ruins. If we talk about figures, we face a lack of one million teachers in the country. Now the solution which Lenovo and many other multinational companies provide is smart technology to reach out to students. What all of us forget behind these fancy smart technology ideas is that our nation doesn’t only lack a very shocking number of teachers, but also is poverty stricken, or has thought processes which don’t put education at the first or even tenth priority. With a global pandemic in rise, the education system of the country has been trying to make necessary changes from online classes to providing e-resources, but is it really helping? Today, as a student at one of the best universities in the country and the world,it is noticeable that people come from extensive and diverse backgrounds. Now, when the word diverse is being used, it can be in terms of economic background too, which brings out the point that not everyone can gain access to online classes and e-resources, not everyone is that privileged, and sometimes it is not even the problem of not being privileged enough, it is also about the geographic location where one resides. But, the foremost point of importance is that the privilege to sit back, attend online classes and read e-material is not available to many. The mere fact that one’s university was planning to have online exams came as a shock to the entire teaching faculty and the students, because of the lack of the availability of resources amongst half of the student population. There was an outbreak of cry for help when my university made it compulsory for every student to fill their examination forms online, even though it had been filled offline once. All of this proves that there is a sheer lack of resources amongst many. Now, what the point here is that these are only instances of one university, not even schools are included in this example. We already face so many difficulties in terms of education as a country that this pandemic hasn’t added to. A documentary on Indian education clearly explained that even if we keep aside the monetary issues, the foremost issue that a child or a student who wants to get enrolled in a college faces is the very lack of motivation and support from family. Education is not given enough importance. Henceforth, with this pandemic in hand, it hampers not only the ability of education reaching many, as it did in earlier times, but it also hampers the child’s motivation to get there and learn from whatever material is available to them, as they’re in an unsupportive environment. We need to understand that the environment plays a huge role in making and breaking students, or for that matter a normal human being. Beyond all these visible difficulties, there exist students who fight through mental health issues and most of the time, as can be drawn from many examples, it stems from home. The root cause of these issues lies in the family they live and breathe in. With constant and never ending exposure to the same, and also non-exposure to their respective medical or psychological help affects one’s cognitive ability to regular activities, let alone studying, and making the most out of their education. Thus, all these issues and so many more which are being addressed silently and not being talked about, hampers the entire education system of the country at this point of a global pandemic. Now, beyond all that is being done - to which maybe we should applaud - but does that mean it is solving the grave problem of the rampaging education system. As we talk about the odds not being on our side this year, we need to look at the fact that there are so many questions of many competitive exams being cancelled, given these testing times. What we miss out is that there are lakhs of students each year who take a gap year to prepare for these examinations. What about them? How do we recompense their loss, if there is any? After all, these things are to be tackled by the education system of the country. Now, these problems need apt solutions, and that too really quick as these changing and ever-evolving times need speedy solutions. As a student, one can only hope for better days. - Written by: Arundhati Agomacharyya (Winner of 'Call for Writers' Essay Competition by KhoonKhas in Teenager category) “ Arundhati’s essay highlights the challenges that our education system faces, particularly with regards to accessibility. In a dynamic environment, it becomes pertinent to be equipped to keep up with technological advancements. Khoon has been an advocate for training technicians at blood banks, and has also conducted sessions across Bengaluru regarding the usage of digital tools to increase blood donations. Today, we can see a rise in voluntary blood donation via such tools, and hope to see a positive change in the field of blood donation now and in the future. “

1. INTRODUCTION: Blood is the life force of every animal that lives on this planet. It is a colloidal fluid that transports life supporting oxygen and nutrients to the cells besides carrying away carbon dioxide and other waste products for removal. The blood that runs throughout the veins, arteries and capillaries is often called as “whole blood”. It is a mixture of 55% liquid plasma and 45% solid blood cells. About 7 to 8% of our total body weight is blood. From the histological point of view blood is considered as a liquid connective tissue and in average a normal healthy person has about 5 to 5.5 liters of blood in his body. 2. ORIGIN OF BLOOD: The most precious fluid of our body that is our blood cells like RBC, WBC, Platelets etc. develop from the hematopoietic stem cells and are formed in the bone narrow. 3. COMPONENTS OF BLOOD: Hematological analysis of blood reveals that it is composed of liquid plasma and the solid blood cells such as RBC, WBC and platelets. a) PLASMA: The plasma part of the blood is a yellowish fluid that contains nutrients, proteins, hormones and the waste products. Due to presence of this component, blood is viscous and can run throughout the body of the animals. b) RBC: The RBCs are the non-nucleated matured blood cells which constitute about 40% to 45% of the total blood volume. They are though biconcave in shape, have a special ability to change their shape so as to fit themselves inside the blood vessels. RBCs have a special protein called as hemoglobin which gives the identical red colour to blood. They can survive on an average upto 120 days. c) WBC: WBCs are nucleated cells of blood which take part in a key role by protecting us from the attack of pathogens and give us immunity. They are of several types and their life span varies from few hours to several months. WBCs are mainly formed in the bone marrow. However in some other parts of our body like spleen, thymus and lymph nodes can also produce the WBCs. Depending on the shape of the nucleus and composition of the cytoplasm, the WBCs are of different types, such as eosinophil, neutrophil, basophil, lymphocyte and monocytes. They all are involved in our immune system. d) PLATELETS: The tiny oval shaped fragments of blood cells that help in the coagulation of blood are called as platelets. These platelets gather around the site of an injury and remain stick to the blood vessels to form a fibrin coat to stop bleeding from there. Platelets survive in Our blood stream for about 9 days and are constantly being replaced by new platelets formed in the bone marrow. 4. CIRCULATION OF BLOOD: Heart is the pumping organ to supply the necessary kinblood. With each heart beat, blood is pumpedetic energy to out to the tissues through the arteries to carry oxygen, food, hormones etc. After delivering these necessary substances, blood returns carrying the excretory materials, carbon dioxide etc through the veins. As the heart beats, the blood travelling through the vessels can be felt as regular “pulse” in the different regions of our body like wrist and neck etc. 5. BLOOD GROUPS: Not all blood is alike. Depending on the chemical composition like antibody and antigen present in the blood, it has been classified into 4 different categories and they are named after the ABO system as Blood group A, Blood group B, Blood group AB and Blood group O. Each group of blood may be further divided into +ve and –ve on the basis of Rh factor. For example, Blood group A +ve and Blood group A -ve etc. 6. GENERAL PROPERTIES OF BLOOD: Being a special type of colloidal solution, blood exhibits some unique properties. Some of the important properties of blood are: a) Blood is a denser and viscous solution with a slight sticky nature. b) Blood maintains its optimum temperature within 38 degree Celsius. c) Blood is slightly alkaline in nature. d) Colour of blood may be different depending on the pigment molecules present. e) Colour of blood may vary on the dissolved oxygen content in the blood plasma. f) Blood contains about 90% water. g) Remaining 10% of blood is different organic and inorganic compounds 7. IMPORTANCE OF BLOOD: Sometimes tears of relatives and well wishers cannot save the life of a patient, but the blood can. Blood is needed to keep us alive and it plays some vital roles in our body to function normally. Blood is important for regulation of the body system and homeostasis. It maintains homeostasis by stabilizing the pH, body temperature, osmotic pressure and also by eliminating the excess heat from our body. Blood supports our physical growth by distributing nutrients and hormones besides removing the waste products from our body. The RBC of blood contains hemoglobin which can bind oxygen to deliver it to the tissues for oxidation of food. It can also remove the unwanted carbon dioxide from the tissues formed after the cellular oxidation of food. Blood plays a very important protective role by transporting clotting factors and platelets to prevent excessive blood loss from an injury. The heparin molecules produced by the blood can prevent the blood from clotting inside the blood vessels. Blood can also transport the disease fighting agents, WBCs to the site of infection for an immune response. The plasma part of the blood acts as a medium to transport various substances within our body. The plasma part of the blood is also associated with the acid-base balance in our body. WBCs surround the infected or injured area of our body to form the fibroblasts and help the process of tissue repair. They are also responsible for the formation of a special protein called ‘Trephone”, which influences the nutrition, growth and cell division in our body. The lymphocytes of our blood can produce antibody to play some crucial role in the defensive mechanism of our body. The phagocytic WBCs play an important role in protecting our body from the microorganisms as they can eat the foreign pathogens that invade our body. There are many more functions that blood can carry out in our body. Less amount of blood in the body of a person can be a serious issue. Due to some physical illness or because of some accidents people lose blood and there are many people having this kind of problem all around the globe. In that condition, the life of the patient can be saved only with a blood transfusion. But, blood cannot be manufactured outside the body. That is the reason why these patients are cured by the blood donated by other people. Thus, the blood donors play a vital role in the healthcare of those patients. The blood donated by other people can save the life of a patient. In the hospitals the patients who are undergoing the treatment of cancer, undergoing orthopedic surgery or cardiovascular surgery etc are always served with the donated blood. The case is even applicable to many other health conditions like accident cases and people with inherited blood disorders. There is no end of the benefits of blood and blood donation. However, one thing we should always keep in our mind that donation of blood does not just benefit the recipient, but there is always a benefit for the donors as well. According to Healthline Magazine, Mental Health Foundation, UK, June, 2019, donating blood always benefits a donor emotionally and physically. The report says that donation of blood can reduce mental stress, can improve our emotional well being, help us to get rid from negative feelings, provides us with a sense of belonging besides helping our physical health. (https://www.healthline.com). Reference: Overview of Blood Donation: Santos A, Alana B, Healthline Magazine, June, 2019 8. CONCLUSION: Everyday people lose blood in accidents and injuries and desperately they require fresh blood to survive. Thus, it is our duty to make the common people understand the importance of blood and blood donation to keep our nation healthy mentally and physically. “A single pint can save three lives; A single gesture can create million smiles.” - Written by: Sri Shivamjyoti Das (Winner of 'Call for Writers' Essay Competition by KhoonKhas in KIDS category) Class 6, Age 11 Years Tangla,Assam " Reading Shivamjyoti’s essay reminds us how important it is to channelize discourse around blood donation, especially since we, as a nation, must work together to overcome the shortage of blood. Khoon has always believed in sharing knowledge via interactive sessions and spreading awareness about blood donation. Khoon has held workshops in educational institutions such as the National Public School and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Khoon aims to continue this tradition of working together to ensure we are more informed by the day and assume a collective responsibility to donate blood. "