Here is a statistic worth sitting with for a second: of the 3,066 organ and tissue donation pledges registered across Jammu and Kashmir, almost half — 1,436, or nearly 47 per cent — have come from Jammu district alone. In a Union Territory of 20 districts, one city has quietly out-pledged everyone else combined.
For a generation that scrolls past a hundred causes a day, this one is unusually concrete. An organ pledge is not a donation drive you attend once and forget. It is a single, durable decision — that if the worst ever happens, the parts of you that still work could keep someone else alive. And in Jammu, more people are making that decision than anywhere else in J&K.
What the numbers actually say
According to figures reported this week, Jammu's 1,436 registrations put it far ahead of the next districts — Kathua (354), Rajouri (200), Doda (148), Udhampur (141), and Poonch and Samba (106 each). The rest of the UT trails behind.
Break it down by what people are pledging and the picture gets even more striking. Among organs, the liver leads with 2,170 pledges, followed closely by the heart (2,081), lungs (1,974), pancreas (1,887) and intestine (1,860), with kidney pledges at 649. Among tissues, blood vessels top the list at 1,824, then bone (1,793), skin (1,779), cartilage (1,707), cornea (603) and heart valve (528).
Those aren't abstract figures. A single donor can save or transform up to eight lives through organs and improve dozens more through tissue — restoring sight through a cornea, helping a burns patient heal with donated skin, giving a child a working heart valve. The 3,066 pledges sitting in the registry are, in effect, a standing promise of thousands of second chances.
Why the number is climbing
Officials credit the steady rise to sustained awareness work by SOTTO, J&K — the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation — through workshops, college sessions, public rallies and outreach drives across the UT. It is slow, unglamorous work, and it is paying off.
The latest example came on 27 June, when SOTTO J&K, with the S S Jain Sabha Jammu, held an inter-faith meet at Namah, Shree Vimal Muni Bhawan in Jammu. The idea was simple but powerful: bring representatives of the Sikh, Muslim, Christian, Kashmiri Pandit and Aggarwal communities into one room to make the same point — that no major faith forbids the gift of life, and that compassion is the common ground.
“The programme aims to bring together representatives of various faiths to promote awareness about organ donation and highlight the shared values of compassion, humanity and saving lives,” said Dr Elias Sharma, Nodal Officer of SOTTO J&K and Head of Urology at the Super Speciality Hospital, GMC Jammu. He was joined by Dr Poonam Mahajan, Joint Director of SOTTO J&K, and local MLAs including Arvind Gupta (Jammu West), Vikram Randhawa (Bahu) and Yudhvir Sethi (Jammu East).
The myths that hold young people back
If you have never pledged, it is usually because of a quiet worry rather than an objection. So, the facts:
“My religion won't allow it.” That was the entire point of the inter-faith meet — major faiths in India treat organ donation as an act of charity, not a violation.
“I'm too young, or not healthy enough.” Anyone aged 18 or above can pledge. Medical suitability is assessed only at the actual time of donation, never at the time of pledging.
“Doctors won't try as hard to save me.” Donation is only ever considered after death has been declared by an independent medical team. Your treatment is never affected by your pledge.
“It's complicated.” It takes about five minutes online, and it is free.
How to pledge — in five minutes
You can register your pledge yourself, right now, on the national portal run by NOTTO (the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation) at notto.abdm.gov.in/REGISTER. You'll enter basic details, choose which organs and tissues you wish to pledge, and receive a donor card. Talk to your family afterwards — at the critical moment, their awareness of your wish is what makes it count.
Jammu's near-47 per cent share is not just a leaderboard stat. It is what happens when a city decides that this particular act of generosity is normal. If you're between 18 and 30, you are exactly the cohort that can push that number higher — and the only cost to you is five minutes today.
This story is part of the national picture too: India recently crossed 5 lakh organ-donation pledges, with Maharashtra leading the country. J&K's contribution is small in that ocean — but Jammu is showing how a single city moves the needle.
Sources: Daily Excelsior — ‘J&K registers 3,066 organ/tissue donation pledges; Jammu leads with 47% share’ (30 June 2026); Greater Kashmir — SOTTO J&K inter-faith organ-donation meet, Jammu (27 June 2026); NOTTO national pledge portal.
