At an age when many people choose to rest and spend time with their families, he at the age of 79 years who knocks on the doors of the rich to collect medicines for the poor, walks 5-7 kms a day collecting leftover medicines from the rich in Delhi. Meet our own ‘Medicine Baba’, the selfless man who dreams of setting up a medicine bank for those who cannot afford treatment.
Omkarnath Sharma, better known as the Medicine Baba, is a retired blood bank technician executing a very difficult mission to start a free medicine bank for the poor and the needy. And for this he walks around the streets of Delhi, knocking the doors of the privileged ones to collect leftover medicines.
His motto “Bachi dawai daan me, na ki kudedaan me, Medicine Baba ka ek hi sapna, gareebo ka medicine bank ho apna.” , made people realize who don’t even know that the medicine they think are useless can be used to save those in need. “All of us have some medicines lying around in our houses but we end up throwing them in the dustbin” said Sharma.
His telephone number is proudly displayed on his orange kurta, he wears plush slippers, both indoors and outdoors. Omkarnath Sharma is phenomenon that catches your eye. In his self designed outfit, he announces himself as a vendor’s cry: ‘The Medicine Baba is here! Give me your old medicines! Don’t throw them away, they can save the lives of the poor!’
In Sharma’s messy, garage- sized room located in the poor quarter of Manglapuri, the shelves are overflowing with boxes of medicines in all colors of the rainbow, opened blister packs, half- full medicine bottles, are all alphabetically arranged.
He has been working like this since 2008, when an under-construction Delhi Metro bridge in Laxmi Nagar collapsed and Omkarnath witnessed many injured people suffering because of the lack of adequate medical care. He saw how the nearest hospital turned away patients saying it did not have the required medicines. Being at no fault, the injured people had to rush here and there to find a place that could provide proper treatment. Omkar was shocked.
He found this situation painfully ironic, on one hand there were no medicines in the hospitals for the people who were dying and on the other hand there were large quantities of usable medicines being discarded by households every day. That was day when something striked to Omkarnath and he decided to become the Medicine Baba.
Medicine Baba is a blessing for many people. At present, he’s trying to help some people suffering from cancer and kidney ailments. He’s trying his best to arrange money for their treatment. Moving around in Delhi wearing an orange shirt that highlights his mission bold. He is a source of hope for many. Let’s all wish that his dream of setting up a medicine bank gets fulfilled.
Eduindex News 