Meira Kumar

New Delhi, Nov. 26: What scares India’s MPs most? A needle prick, it seems.

Only 16 turned up today to donate blood in response to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar’s call to show solidarity with the victims of last November’s terror attack.

Just nine of them finally did, after the rest had been declared unfit.

But several of them wouldn’t have been eligible to donate because of their age. Rules say a donor has to be between 18 and 55, which may be extended up to 60 years if the donor is in perfect health.

Only 30 per cent of Lok Sabha MPs — or 180-odd —are within 55. Members of the Rajya Sabha, or the House of Elders, are generally older as the sobriquet suggests.

In Mumbai, a blood donation camp at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus filled more than 3,600 bottles. At another camp at Churchgate Station, 474 donors lined up to donate blood.

Kumar, who opened the blood donation camp, had appealed to the MPs to donate “generously”. Many later said they were unaware of the campaign, though the regular Lok Sabha bulletin carried the appeal for the past two days.

The bulletin said the purpose of the camp was to “remember the innocent victims and the heroes who achieved martyrdom while repulsing the attack on the nation and also to rededicate ourselves to the unity and integrity of the country”.

House staff saved the day for Kumar after 32 of them donated blood at the camp held at the Banquet Hall of the Parliament Annexe. Red Cross officials, too, went back satisfied.

The MPs who donated blood were Mahabal Mishra, Ninong Ering, Vinay Kumar Pandey, Sandeep Dikshit, Ananth Venkatrami, P. Balram Naik, G. Vivekanand, Devji Mansingram Patel and Kaushalendra Kumar.

Those who were declared unfit were Girija Vyas, K. Narayan Rao, Sircilla Rajaiah, Poonam Prabhakaran, V. Narayansamy, Tarlochan Singh and Helen Davidson.

Among the seven, at least two — Girija Vyas and Tarlochan Singh — are over 60.

A senior transfusion expert said there was always a gap between demand and supply of blood in the country, although the shortage varies from place to place and across time.

Anand Deshpande, a transfusion medicine consultant at Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai, said voluntary donations accounted for about 60 per cent of the supply. The remaining 40 per cent comes from last-minute and urgent appeals, he added.