Siliguri, June 27: Buoyed by unexpected response from tribal youths of a tea estate in the Terai to the blood donation camps it had conducted, the DYFI has decided to hold more such programmes in the area.

The youth wing of the CPM is organising such camps across Darjeeling district at a time when the government and private blood banks in and around Siliguri are running short of their stock.

“As we do every year, the DYFI has plans to organise 40 blood camps to collect at least 4,000 units,” said Shankar Ghosh, the district secretary of the organisation. He added that seven camps were already held.

“Earlier, whenever we conducted blood camps, tribals’ attitude was lackadaisical. But we were surprised to see the huge response when the DYFI organised a camp in Ort Tea Estate in April. We collected 176 units of blood and the donors were mostly tribals,” said Ghosh.

According to a DYFI leader, it was the fear nurtured by age-old superstitions that had kept the tribals away from blood camps. “As part of our awareness campaign, we are pondering over asking the donors in the Ort estate to accompany us to other tea gardens to convince the youths that there is no harm involved in blood donation,” said the leader.

Mridumoy Das, director of the Regional Blood Transfusion Centre at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, said although the situation had improved, more units of blood were still needed. “Usually, we maintain a stock of 350-400 units, but right now, we have only 250-300 units.”

Ghosh said his organisation would conduct another camp in Siliguri on July 2 and the blood collected there would be deposited in Siliguri District Hospital.