Omkar Nath Sharma
 | The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies. (February 2017) |
Omkar Nath Sharma born in India (around 1940) also known as the "Medicine Baba" (Medicine Monk).[1] is a retired blood bank technician from Kailash Hospital in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, who voluntarily collects unused medicines from people and distributes them to the poor free of charge.[2][3][4][5] Omkar started collecting medicine after realising the acute medicine shortage, when he witnessed the Delhi Metro under-construction bridge collapsed in East Delhi in 2008, claiming the lives of two labourers and injuring many others. The local hospital administered basic first aid but nothing else. The injured returned home to die being unable to afford the cost of treatment. That incident shook Omkar and he became determined to not let something like this happen again.[6]
Crippled at the age of 12 in a car accident, Omkar walks five or six kilometres per day. At the end of every collection, Omkar carefully catalogues everything in his binder: the name of the drug, the manufacturer, where he collected it and the expiry date. Omkar makes no profit from these.[7][8]
Omkar lives with his wife and a 45-year-old mentally challenged son.[citation needed]
Awards[edit]
- 2016 Delhi Gaurav Award[9]
- 2017 Shoorveer Award - Mumbai
References[edit]
- ^ "He collects medicines to help poor". Times of India. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ^ "Omkar Nath: India's medicine man". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ^ "Meet the poor man's Medicine Baba". The Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 12 January 2015. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ^ "Delhi: 75-year old is 'medicine baba' for the poor". IBN Live. Archived from the original on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ^ "India's 'Medicine Baba' collecting unused drugs to save lives". ABC Radio Australia. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ^ "The messiah of medicine". The Hindu. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ^ "The 'Medicine Baba' Goes Door to Door". The New York Times. 25 April 2012. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ^ "MEDICINE MONK OMKAR NATH SHARMA'S GESTURE OF COMPASSION MOVES MILLIONS". Success Stories. Retrieved 12 January 2015.
- ^ "Awardee | Delhi Gaurav Award". www.delhigauravaward.org. Retrieved 6 November 2017.