Fuel is costly, kindness isn’t: Odisha auto driver takes poor patients to hospital for free

Most mornings near the Baripada bus stand are noisy and rushed. Autos line up, engines sputter to life, conductors shout out destinations, and travellers hurry past with bags and tired faces. In the middle of all this, there is one autorickshaw driver watching the crowd, not for passengers, but for people who look like they might need help.

According to a TOI report, 37-year-old autorickshaw driver Binod Lohar has been offering free rides to Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical College and Hospital for over three months now.

The service is meant for poor patients, the elderly, the infirm, and people with disabilities who cannot afford an auto ride.


Lohar sets aside time every day for this. Between 11 am and 1 pm, and again for an hour after 4 pm, he ferries patients from the bus stand to the hospital and back without charging anything. For differently-abled persons, the service is available at any hour.

The idea, however, was not planned. It grew out of something he saw.

Earlier this year, while returning home late at night after dropping a passenger, Lohar noticed an elderly woman walking slowly towards the hospital, her granddaughter beside her. They looked tired and alone. When he asked if they wanted a ride, they said they had only Rs 200 with them and could not afford an auto.

“I told them to sit. I dropped them at the hospital,” he recalled.

That moment stayed with him. He realised how often illness becomes heavier because of money. Many patients coming to Baripada from far-off villages spend most of what they have just reaching the town. The final stretch to the hospital, only a few kilometres, ends up being done on foot.

Since then, free hospital trips have become part of Lohar’s daily routine. On most mornings, he makes at least four such trips. Still, it is not always easy to get people to accept the offer.

“When I say it’s free, they don’t believe me,” he said, smiling. “They think there must be some condition.”

Evenings are simpler. Patients returning from the hospital are easier to identify, some walking slowly, some leaning on relatives, others just drained after hours of waiting.

For the rest of the day, Lohar works like any other auto driver, charging regular fares to earn his living. With rising fuel costs and family responsibilities, the free rides are not backed by any organisation or funding. They come entirely from his own pocket.

To make people aware of the service, Lohar has put up a poster behind his auto. His phone number is also written inside the vehicle so patients or attendants can contact him directly.

This is not the only way he helps. The TOI report also notes that Lohar is a regular blood donor, something he mentions without much fuss. He also assists poor patients in arranging free or low-cost ambulance services when they are referred from Baripada to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.

Inputs from TOI