No blood banks in 76 districts in India: MoS Health in Rajya Sabha

Blood is one of the most crucial life-saving need which one may require at any point of time but there are about 76 districts in the country where there is not even a single blood bank.

These districts are spread across 16 states where there is not even a single blood bank. Here's the list: 

State                               No. of districts 

Andaman and Nicobar:    1
Arunachal Pradesh:       14
Assam:                             4
Bihar:                                5
Chhattisgarh:                    4
Gujarat:                            2
Haryana:                           1
Himachal Pradesh:           1
Jammu and Kashmir:       5
Jharkhand:                       4
Madhya Pradesh:             2
Manipur:                          12
Meghalaya:                       5
Nagaland:                         9
Sikkim:                              2
Telangana:                        4

Two states, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur have the highest number of districts — 14 and 12 — where there is not even a single blood bank while states including Andaman and Nicobar, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have at least one district where this life-saving facility is not available.

According to data, there are about 3,108 licensed blood banks in the country. Out of these, Maharashtra has the highest which is 333, followed by Uttar Pradesh which has 327 blood banks.

Meanwhile, Gujarat has 153 blood banks while Delhi alone has 60 licensed blood banks.

The information was revealed by Union Minister of State (MoS) for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply to Rajya Sabha. MoS Health gave out this information while replying to a query over the government's plan of setting up at least one blood bank in every district across the country.

Ashwini Kumar also mentioned since health was a state subject, therefore, establishing blood banks as per guidelines of the government of India lies with the state governments.