r/Feminism4India

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Hello everyone,

This is going to be a post on medical misogyny and organ donation, looking at both Indian and global perspectives.

I posted a video earlier regarding this topic which did not quote any sources in the description, and I received a lot of comments saying that organ donation is not the correct parameter to judge medical misogyny. So instead of replying to each and every comment, I decided to make a detailed post here.

Just to be clear, I am not someone from the medical profession myself. However, I have a lot of friends and family members who are in the field, and we have regular conversations regarding medical misogyny.

All the data and quotes I am sharing here are compiled from public research and official studies, but since I am only human, there can be discrepancies.

If you are a medical professional and have corrections or more data to add, please be my guest. I am completely open to learning.

Shall we start with the data first?

What the official data says in India

According to cumulative data from NOTTO (National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation):

* 80% of all organ recipients in India are male.

* 75% to 80% of all living donors are female.

* Among parental donors, mothers account for 50% to 73% of donations.

* Wives make up to 90% of spousal donations.

* Husbands donating to their wives account for under 5%. Under 5%.

Let us look at what AIIMS and the Indian Journal of Nephrology say (focusing on kidney transplants):

* The Indian Journal of Nephrology documented that 79% of donors were biologically female, while 81.5% of recipients were male.

* AIIMS data noted that 51.8% of these female donors felt socially compelled to prioritize male lives. They did not donate entirely out of choice; they felt forced by society.

* 33.2% cited that they do not earn and depend on the person who needs the organ, so they had to give it.

* Only 15% said they donated purely out of love and uncoerced altruism.

* AIIMS studies also found that only 30% to 35% of people on registered transplant waitlists are women.

Women are almost always underdiagnosed, face delayed clinical referrals, and families simply do not want to spend money on their treatments.

Coming to ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research):

ICMR highlights that 75% of organ transplants take place in tier 1 cities in India, where the financial prioritization of male lives is even more visible.

What global trends look like

According to GODT (Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation) in association with WHO:

* Global numbers are not as severe as South Asia, where patriarchal conditioning is at its peak, but the disparity is still everywhere.

* Globally, 65% of living kidney donors are women, and 65% of recipients are men.

* In the US, data shows 60% to 62% of living donors are women, while 60% of recipients are men.

* When it comes to deceased organ donation, donors are both men and women, but the primary recipients in both living and deceased cases remain men. Men are prioritized either way.

Why is this the reality in India?

Why do wives make up 90% of spousal donations while husbands account for under 5%? The reasons are very clear:

* Societal pressure: Women are constantly told that they have to provide, care, and sacrifice for the household.

* Lack of earning power: Women are financially dependent on men and need the breadwinner to stay alive, leaving them with no choice but to give up an organ.

* Gender inequality: Women are raised to believe their inherent purpose is to support the men in their families.

* Perceived value: In both rural and urban areas, women are often not seen as worthy enough for families to spend large sums of money on their life saving surgeries or transplant waitlists.

Addressing the blood donation argument and the food gap

A lot of comments on my previous video argued that men donate more blood, so it balances out.

Let us look at why that happens:

First, Men do not menstruate. .

A woman loses blood every month during her cycle, sometimes for up to seven days.

She has a short window to recover her blood levels just to function normally, all while bearing the biological burden of reproduction.

Asking a person who bleeds every month why they do not donate blood as often as men ignores basic biology.

Second, there is a massive food and nutrition gap in India: patriarchy food edition .

* In almost every household, whether rich, poor, urban, or rural, men are served first with the best, most nutrient rich portions of food. Women eat last and survive on leftovers.

* In rural areas, this is made worse by heavy physical labor, worm infestations, gut infections, and repeated pregnancies without adequate rest or food.

* Because of this structural neglect, India has one of the highest anemic populations in the world. Indian women across rural and urban backgrounds suffer from severe anemia, which medically disqualifies them from donating blood in the first place.

* The blood that men do donate mostly goes back into treating other men who make up the majority of hospital admissions.

The cycle of conditioned sacrifice

From childhood, girls are conditioned to care, follow rules, and keep giving.

In school, well behaved girls are made to sit next to unruly boys to fix them.

As women grow up, society forces them into roles of endless caretaking, and eventually, forces them to surrender their physical organs.

When a woman falls ill, her diagnosis is delayed, her pain is dismissed, and hospital systems and families prioritize male patients over her.

This is the ground reality of medical misogyny in our society, and the numbers prove it..

donate to people out of love not out of force.

we give and give until we have nothing left.

https://indianjnephrol.org/invisible-sacrifices-gendered-dynamics-and-social-pressures-in-living-kidney-donation-in-india/?hl=en-GB

https://www.mcgill.ca/humanrights/article/gender-disparities-organ-donation-and-transplantation-india-call-equality?hl=en-GB

Sooo I came across this post where a guy rejected a girl because of her past and the girl got enraged because of it. Now I'm guessing it's probably a troll post with a fabricated scenario for karma farming but still assuming it has happened in real life, was she right to get infuriated over this? I believe she was partially as no girl would entertain someone who'd subtly judge others for their past and body count but then again she reached out to him by herself and people can have preferences regardless of what is its origin. But at the same time, we know how red-pilled content and the whole manosphere and incel community have injected into the minds of the young, narratives that if a girl has past, she's impure and you shouldn't get into relationship with her and call her the r-word and she's for the streets blah blah. So the origin of the preference of wanting a partner without any past or body count seems to me a bit controversial. If you're an Andrew Tate fan who gets influenced by his misogynistic ideologies and then spew bs like "no seal no deal" in a more formal manner, that's still quite messed up for sure. I'm nuanced on this whole thing and couldn't say what is right or what is wrong. What are your views on this?

In an urgent need of housing (Canada) a few years ago, I rented a house with all men (roomied w bf at the time (all aged22-26 yo) and one black lady (who worked 16 hours a day).

The house, predictably, was in HORRIBLE condition. Mold, cockroaches, DINGY as fuck, every thing was broken, dirty beyond repair and just horrible.

The landlord was a Bangladeshi middle aged man- who would come in without notice, did repair any (no one asked), walked in without knocking- he was horrible too. Great at collecting rent tho.

He never liked me because I asked him to repair our broken window (shielded w a garbage bag in -15 degree winter) and clean out black mold (can cause serious lung damage, eye and skin damage too), which he didn’t but I asked.

One day, my bf was at work and I was asleep in the bedroom, when I heard someone at my door, and the landlord walked in! I yelled at him naturally and he blamed me for being rude.

I told my bf that the LL should give notice before coming to the house- my bf said-m- he’s the landlord, it’s his house you should be grateful he’s letting you stay.

And there’s been so many many instances- and you’ll notice it too- where men just are ok w living in horrible conditions, just because.

They have such low standards of living and expect everyone to deal with it.

Not only Indian problem (but specifically india).

Women may be dirty and messy, but there are still limits to it, and they’re a select few ffr.

It’s their mindset atp