The All India Blood Donation Day is observed in the country on  October  1. The Day is celebrated to promote Voluntary Blood Donation which is the only system that ensures the safety of both the donor and the recipient of blood. This system is recognised and practised in most countries of the world and strongly advocated by the World Health  Organization and other international agencies and the objective is that India should also switch over to the 100 per cent voluntary  system as speedily as possible.

Donating blood constitutes a unique service in as much as it enables an individual to give a fellow being the most precious gift-the gift  of life-without  the  slightest harm to himself. It has been  established by experts that donating blood  is completely safe, and that the quantity donated is replaced  by  nature  within  a  matter  of hours. Blood Transfusion forms  a very important  part  of  modern  therapy and lives of countless people are saved thereby.

The special significance of the Day is to focus the attention of the community towards a humanitarian activity. Every healthy citizen between the age of 18  and 60 can donate the gift of blood every 3 months and thus help in making available adequate quantities of blood of the desired quality for the sick and the wounded throughout  the country. Mass education in removing the inhibitions and superstitions of people would go a long way in saving millions of lives which suffer  for want of the precious fluid which can be provided only through human compassion.

Fear, superstition and apathy which are entertained by some people with regard to blood donation can be dispelled by  the fact that millions give blood regularly and thousands of them have made 100 or more donations.

The Day aims at acquainting the public of their responsibility to the less fortunate people of the country and to project the dramatic life-saving power of blood transfusion.

The Posts and Telegraphs Department deems it a privilege to associate itself with the observance of the All India Blood Donation Day by issuing a special postage stamp.

Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India