Auto driver in Baripada offers free rides to hospital for poor patients

Bhubaneswar: Outside the crowded Baripada bus stand in Mayurbhanj district, autorickshaw driver Binod Lohar patiently looks out for people who are poor, old, infirm and on their way to the Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College and Hospital but cannot afford an auto ride.For the last three months, 37-year-old Lohar has been offering them free rides to the hospital and back to the bus stand every day. His voluntary service is available for two hours in the morning and an hour in the evening. His auto rides are free for differently-abled persons round-the-clock.Lohar decided to start the voluntary service after seeing poor patients and parents carrying their ailing children and walking towards the hospital from the bus stand, unable to afford a rickshaw or an auto ride. “Earlier this year, while returning home at night after dropping a passenger at the bus stand, I saw a frail-looking elderly woman walking towards the hospital along with her granddaughter. Nobody was accompanying them. When I enquired if they needed a ride, they said they only had Rs 200 and could not spend money on an auto ride. I requested them to allow me to drop them at the hospital,” he recalled. That is how he started the free auto service to the hospital daily, from 11 am to 1 pm and an hour after 4 pm.He does at least four free trips to the hospital in the morning. Lohar said that not many people coming to Baripada from different parts of the district are aware of his service yet, and he has to convince them to avail themselves of the free auto ride. “But in the evening, when people are returning from the hospital, it is easier to spot them,” he said. For the rest of the day, he earns his livelihood by charging passengers.While Lohar has put up a poster behind his auto to make people aware of his service, he has also written his mobile number inside his vehicle so that people can contact him.His social work does not end there. Lohar is a regular blood donor and also helps poor patients by facilitating free or affordable ambulance service if they are referred to SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, from Baripada.