India on Voluntary Blood Donation
A commemorative postage stamp on the National Voluntary Blood Donation Day :
Issued by India
Issued on Oct 1, 1976
Issued for : The Posts and Telegraphs Department deems it a privilege to associate itself with the observance of the All India Blood Donation Day by issuing a special postage stamp.
Description of Design : The design of the stamp is symbolic on the theme of ‘Voluntary Blood Donation’.
Designed by : Shri B.G. Varma
Type : Stamp, Mint condition
Colour : Multicolour
Denomination : 25 Paise
Overall size : 3.91 X 2.90 cms.
Printing size : 3.56 X 2.54 cms.
Perforation : 13 x 13
Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked adhesive stamp paper
Number printed : 30,00,000
Number per issue sheet : 35
Printing process : Photogravure
Printed at : India Security Press
About :
- The All India Blood Donation Day is observed in the country on October 1. The Day is celebrated to promote Voluntary Blood Donation which is the only system that ensures the safety of both the donor and the recipient of blood. This system is recognised and practised in most countries of the world and strongly advocated by the World Health Organization and other international agencies and the objective is that India should also switch over to the 100 per cent voluntary system as speedily as possible.
- Donating blood constitutes a unique service in as much as it enables an individual to give a fellow being the most precious gift – the gift of life – without the slightest harm to himself. It has been established by experts that donating blood is completely safe, and that the quantity donated is replaced by nature within a matter of hours. Blood Transfusion forms a very important part of modern therapy and lives of countless people are saved thereby.
- The special significance of the Day is to focus the attention of the community towards a humanitarian activity. Every healthy citizen between the age of 18 and 60 can donate the gift of blood every 3 months and thus help in making available adequate quantities of blood of the desired quality for the sick and the wounded throughout the country. Mass education in removing the inhibitions and superstitions of people would go a long way in saving millions of lives which suffer for want of the precious fluid which can be provided only through human compassion.
- Fear, superstition and apathy which are entertained by some people with regard to blood donation can be dispelled by the fact that millions give blood regularly and thousands of them have made 100 or more donations.
- The Day aims at acquainting the public of their responsibility to the less fortunate people of the country and to project the dramatic life-saving power of blood transfusion.
