BODY LANGUAGE: People queue up at the club stall during the Science Fair; governor of West Bengal Gopal Gandhi takes a close look at a cadaver (below)

On the face of it, Uttor Kolkata Udayer Pothey (UKUP) is like any other club. It organises blood donation camps, distributes books to the needy and dabbles in other charitable causes. But what makes it stand out is an exhibition it organises in north Calcutta every year. It isn’t a run-of-the-mill exhibition but one where the dissected human body is on display.

And believe it or not, every year there is a mile-long queue for over five days to get a glimpse of the cadaver on display. Mind you, it isn’t just the curious onlooker but rather those who are keen to learn about the human body who actually queue up when the exhibition is on.

Meant to create awareness about the human body and highlight the benefits of donating organs, the club, apparently, is succeeding in its mission. People from all walks of life ? like chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, writer Sunil Gangopadhyay, former chief minister Jyoti Basu, Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, mayor Bikashranjan Bhattacharya and theatre personality Rudraprasad Sengupta ? have pledged their bodies for the progress of science and humanity.

Says writer Sunil Gangopadhyay, “If the human body can serve humanity even after death, why not donate it? I’m happy if my participation can in any way increase awareness about this issue.”

Previously the preserve of doctors, scientists and medical students, the exhibition is meant to demonstrate to the lay man the various functions of the human body. “The exhibition makes people aware of how vital every organ is and, more importantly, shows that even after death these organs can be of use to another human being,” says Aditi Roy, a housewife who visited the fair with her school-going son.

In 1832, philosopher Jeremy Bentham donated his body to further the cause of science. More than a century later, in 1956, Panduranga Sridhar Apte’s body was donated to B.J. Medical College, Pune. In 1990, Shukumar Home Chowdhury’s body was the first to be donated in West Bengal. “The concept is gaining momentum although, among the common people, it is yet to catch on. Superstitions, taboos, obscure ideas of bygone centuries stand in the way of progress,” says Brojo Rai, of Ganadarpan, a pioneer in this field. Meera Bhattacharya, chairperson of Bigyan Manch, is all praise for the club. “It stands by people at all hours, serving and educating society, trying to rid it of superstition.”

The contribution of the hearse driver of the UKUP club is worth noting. Debashish Mohanto or Bapi, as he is better known, is an active member of the club. The hearse is used by people of all sects and communities and, as such, is no different from other such vans plying in the city. But the man behind the wheel is distinctive.

He looks for opportunities when the grieving family becomes somewhat calm to broach the topic, stress the need for body or organ donation and underline how invaluable the contribution could be for someone in desperate need. “Some bodies were donated just as they were about to be consigned to the flames. There are those who, on their way to the crematorium, decide to let some organ of the dead person survive in another person,” recounts Bapi.

But then, like all such activities, this too has a flip side. Often families refuse to carry out the departed person’s wishes. As was the case with the late Dr Bhaskar Raichoudhury, former vice-chancellor of Calcutta University. His body could not be put to scientific use as per his pledge since his family refused to hand it over after his death. Similar was the case with poet Subhas Mukherjee’s body. It is because of such unforeseen circumstances that West Bengal ranks eighth in body and organ donation, way below Gujarat, Delhi or Pondicherry.

UKUP, as part of the Acharya Satyendranath Bose Smarak Bigyan Projukti Mela ? organised by the Paschim Bigyan Mancha in conjunction with the National Medical College, Calcutta ? helps to promote the cause of organ donation, especially the cadaver donation of organs. In the last five years, around two lakh forms for body and body part donations have been filled in. The number of bodies received though was only about 600.

“Susrut Eye Foundation and Research Centre and the government of West Bengal, in a joint venture, have set up the Organ Transplantation Coordination Centre in Salt Lake, Calcutta to facilitate this,” informs Utpal Chatterjee, former cricketer and joint secretary of UKUP.

Since the late 1980s, human organs such as the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, bowel and pancreas are being retrieved from brain-stem-dead cadavers and transplanted regularly into patients who have had organ failure arising from fatal diseases. Such operations have an impressive success rate of more than 85 per cent and the transplanted organs function for several years, giving a new lease of life to the recipients. In fact, such brain dead, heart-beating cadavers form an invaluable pool of potential organ donors.

However, cadaver donation of organs is still very rare in India. Many doctors themselves are unaware of the fact that brain death is a form of death. Often, a delay in issuing the death certificate results in crucial time being lost so the organ cannot be retrieved within the stipulated time.

Besides, there aren’t enough trained transplant coordinators who can explain the benefit of new life given to a recipient on account of the donation of organs from a brain-dead cadaver.

But there are those like mayor Bikashranjan Bhattacharya who believe that a cadaver cannot be treated as the property of any individual. “Even the near and dear ones are eager to dispose of the body. So it is society which becomes the owner of the cadaver and it must be utilised for the betterment of society. India has a vast population and organ donation can be a scientific innovation where death ? through a chemical chain ? gets translated into dignified life,” he emphasises.

This, in a sense, would denote life after death or, for that matter, rebirth. Promoting that cause would surely benefit not only the individual but also society at large.