World Anatomy Day is celebrated on 15^th of October every year in the memory of renowned Anatomist Andreas Vesalius, the father of Modern Human Anatomy. An integral part of the teaching of Anatomy is learning detailed body structure by dissecting the human body. In recent few years, there has been an acute shortage of human cadavers due to insufficient body donations in the institute. Executive Director, Dr M. Hanumantha Rao and other authorities of the institute had shown concern about the deficit and encouraged Anatomy department to organise awareness of the general public towards educational body donation to the institute. Accordingly various events of public contact and awareness were organized by the department from October 11^thto 13^th, 2023 within and outside the institute premises. The activities included public contact program at PHC Bela, street play at screening OPD, felicitation ceremony for the family of body donors, visit of school students to the department, national level e-poster competition and abstract anatomy Rangoli competition.

Public contact programme was  held at PHC Bela, (The. Umred) on 11^th October and was attended by the local residents and patients visiting the OPD along with Asha workers, nursing and paramedical staff. Dr. Sonali Wankhede Medical Officer at PHC Bela and Dr Aakanksha Deshmukh (SR, Community Medicine dept) and other staff of Bela PHC attended the programme. Dr A M Tarnekar, Professor and Head of the department, explained the need and the institutional facilities for body donation. Dr Vishwajit Deshmukh elaborated the process of body donation as well as formalities of registration as body donors. Willingness forms were distributed to local staff and interested people for mass distribution via QR coded pamphlets. The programme concluded with thanks giving by Dr Bharat Sontakke and refreshments.

On 11^th October afternoonthe ‘Felicitation program of the family member of body Donor’was organised, wherein Dr Mrunal Phatak, Dean (Academics) presided as chief guest and Dr Manish Shrigiriwar, Medical Superintendent, and Mr Vijay Nayak, Deputy Director (Admin), were present as guests of honour. Students of 1^st year MBBS, staff of Anatomy and other departments werealso present. Family members of the donors who offered their bodies last year and the subjects who submitted willingness for body donation last year, were the special invitees. In the very beginning, the students welcomed all the invited guests with roses. Dr. Sanjay Thatere, son of Late Shri Balwant Thatere; Mrs. Abha Pande, wife of Late Deepak Pande; Mr. And Mrs Pradeep Badani, son of Late Smt. Madhukanta Badani; Mr. Aaditya Raje, son of Late Shatajeev Raje and Mr. Shrikant Gupte, son of Late Bhalchandra Gupte, were amongst the invitees along with many willing donors. The family members of donors were then felicitated by the institute authorities by offering a shawl and a sapling. Authorities also honoured willing donors by offering them a donor card and sapling.

Dr Mrunal Phatak praised the efforts taken by the families who extended their supporting hands by body donation. Dr Manish Shrigiriwar acknowledged his gratitude towards the motivated families and informed gathering that the educational donations are legally backed by the Maharashtra Anatomy Act and therefore motivation for donation should always be encouraged in family. Mrs Badani expressed her view regarding the crucial moment of body donation wherein her son who had submitted a project in his school in favour of body and organ donations, took initiative and encouraged other family members for donation of his grandfather’s body. She added that body donations are made with the hope that the medical students will utilize the opportunity to understand and improvise learning the disease processes well and offer better treatment options to the society in return. Expressing his views, Dr Sanjay Thatere stated that there were myths pertaining to body donation that need to be removed by mass campaigning and reiterated the need of body donation for the support of education of Medical and allied courses.

Dr. Shital Maske, Senior Resident of the department, anchored the felicitation event. Dr. Kirubhanand C, Associate Professor of the department, proposed vote of thanks. The programme concluded with tree plantation in the campus by the invitees followed by refreshment.

First year medical students presented a street play near screening OPD of AIIMS Hospital on 13^th October. Initially Dr. Tarnekar addressed the public informing them about the need of body donations by the society. The skit highlighted the role played by cadavers in medical education and caught attention of public by the very effective way of communication that the subsequent learning outcome of medical graduates depends on the availability of cadavers as the crucial resource in all medical institutes. Some keen listeners came forward for mass campaigning of body donation awareness. The skit was scripted and directed by Dr Shital Maske. Dr Bharat Sontakke, Dr. Kirubhanand, Dr. Vishwajit Deshmukh, Dr. Arun Kumar and the support staff of Anatomy department invoked people to distribute QR code bearing pamphlets for pledging body donation.

As torch bearers for the society, the youngsters play an important role of communication to the mass. To launch effective campaigning of body donation, the department took an initiative of creating awareness about intricacy of structure of human body by organising an exhibition for school students of 8^th and 9^th standard of Bhavans Vidya Mandir, Chinchbhuvan, on 13.10.2023 afternoon. Around 120 students accompanied by science teachers, visited the exhibition. The students actively interacted with 1^st year medical students and quenched their queries through the display of organ-systems and were overwhelmed by seeing body parts from real as well as synthetic cadavers. Dr Gugapriya (Professor), Dr Snehal Deulkar (Tutor) and Dr. Jwaalyn Morgan (JR-I) of the department coordinated the event.  The teachers were offered a sapling as a token of appreciation from the department.

Same day "Anatomical Rangoli Competition" was organised for MBBS and nursing students. There were also exhibits of e-poster (abstract medical drawing) competition held nationwide online for which Dr Gayatri Muthiyan (Additional professor) and Dr. Vishwajit Deshmukh, coordinated. Both the arts events were judged by Dr. T.S. Gugapriya, Dr. Chaitali Chindlore (Asso. Prof., Pharmacology) and Dr. Rajni Peter (Principal, Nursing College, AIIMS, Nagpur). Three winner positions were declared by the judges. The winners and other participants received e-certificates and prizes.