Jalpaiguri's 'Ambulance Dada' Who Ferries People To The Hospital Free Of Cost Wins Padma Shri

Meet an unsung hero in the guise of a common man, Karimul Haque, who is now also the recipient of the Padma Shri award.

Karimul Haque

Known as Ambulance Dada in one of the remotest village in West Bengal¡¯s Jalpaiguri could not stop his tears of joy after hearing the news of being one of the recipients of prestigious Padma Shri award announced on the eve of the 68th Republic Day.

¡°I never thought that a person staying in one of the remotest village of West Bengal could win such a prestigious award,¡± says Karimul Haque.

¡°I am still trying to come to terms with the news. I want to even thank my mother after whose loss I felt the need of starting this selfless social service. And I want to thank the government.¡±

Karimul¡¯s village is in a celebratory mood. He has won the Padma Shri award along with the likes of Virat Kohli, Dipa Karmakar and Meenakshi Amma, a 76-year-old from Kerala who is India¡¯s oldest exponent of Kalaripayattu.

¡°I am really happy and feel that no work is small or big and all work is recognised now or later.¡±

Karimul Haque is a 52-year-old tea garden worker in Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal who uses his motorbike to take villagers in need of treatment to hospitals that are a whopping 70 kilometres away. And he does this all free of cost. The village does have a couple of primary health care centres but one has to traverse around eight to ten kilometres and overcome difficult and unrelenting terrain to get there.

Karimul Haque

His wife Anjuara Begum says, ¡°We all support him and help him for his selfless contribution towards the villagers. We feel proud of what he is doing.¡±

Dr. Hiten Barman, doctor in-charge of the Primary Health Centre, who stood beside Karimul and inspired him to continue his selfless work feels that Haque has now become an inspiration for his village. If anyone in the village has any problem, they rush to Karimul first. People now feel that Karimul has solution to all their healthcare problems.

But how did it all begin?

¡°I belong to a very poor family,¡± says Karimul. "It was in 1995, my mother, Zafuran Nessa, was feeling very uneasy at around midnight. We decided to look for a medical practitioner or a doctor or some transport to rush her to the hospital which is a little over 40 kilometres from our village.¡±

Karimul Haque

Karimul further goes on to add, ¡°We ran from pillar to post for help but nothing can to our rescue. That day at around 2:45 am, I lost my mother.¡±

Deeply saddened by the incident, what struck Karimul the most was the fact that there must be many people like his mother in the village who succumbed to illnesses due to failure in treatment.

¡°I was deeply saddened by the incident as I could not save my mother. People in my village depend on homely remedies as they cannot afford to travel to hospitals in proper town.¡±

Karimul Haque

Karimul decided to buy a motorbike on loan.

¡°On the same day I got ambulance written both in front and back of my two wheeler. And I even highlighted the words ¡®Day and Night free service¡¯. Since then there has been no looking back," he says.

¡°I have selflessly driven patients from my village as well as neighbouring villages to hospital. Initially, people made fun of me and mocked my idea of using my two-wheeler as an ambulance. But I did not give up; I continue to take patients as pillion on my bike. People gradually started praising my initiative,¡± he further adds. He smiles and says now I am christened with a new name ¡°Ambulance Dada¡±.

When asked why not a car instead of motorbike, Karimul said, ¡°We are poor and do not have extra money to spare. The bike which I took was on loan. Moreover, the bike ambulance suits better to difficult terrain in the region. There are many forests, canals, narrow roads and ambulance on four wheels will take more time to drive patients to hospital. My only aim is to save their life.¡±

Karimul Haque

Having decided that there should be no one, young or old who would die due to lack of treatment, Karimul, since then, has been on a mission to saving lives.

Speaking further about why he started this, Karimul says, ¡°I saved lives of people but sought nothing in return. I feel that god is seeing me and my work towards mankind. I am sure, somewhere among the stars, my mother is there and she is feeling happy and proud of my work. People call me god for all these but I tell them I am not a god, I am just an ordinary man.¡±

Karimul Haque

Narrating one such incident, Karimul says, ¡°All my incidents are memorable but there is one incident I think will never fail out of my memory. One day while I just sat to have my meal, after taking the first bite, I received a call. A family called that a newborn in their family is unwell and was in need of immediate medical assistance. I left my food uneaten and rushed the child and his father to the primary healthcare centre. From there a doctor asked us to take the child immediately to a bigger hospital in town. My wife had stopped me and told that I should not leave food mid-way and go, it is considered as disrespect to goddess Annapurna. But I said I have to save a life. All through the way to hospital, I ensured the father of the child¡¯s well-being. But once we reached the hospital and took the child to the doctor, he was declared dead on arrival. The father was still unaware that his child had passed away.¡±

Karimul Haque

Recounting further, Karimul says, ¡°The doctor said the body has to be taken for post-mortem as the child had died on the way. I agreed. I just had ninety rupees in my pocket I had nothing to pay the doctor and the child¡¯s father had no money on him. I somehow mustered my courage to tell the father that his child his no more. He broke down.¡±

While Karimul and the child¡¯s father wanted to bring the body back to their village, constrained economic conditions prevented them from doing so, a broken father and Karimul would later consent to have the child buried in the hospital premises itself. The grief that struck them when they reached their village is something that haunts Karimul till date.

Karimul Haque

After that Karimul made up his mind and with the help of rickshaw wheels and a trolley created a makeshift coffin for times when he needs to ferry back a body for its last rites.

Karimul drives patients to Jalpaiguri, Siliguri and Malbazar apart from other places. Seeing his dedication in saving lives a lot of doctors from these hospitals have trained him in first aid and basic treatments. They have even helped him with a list of medicines which he recommends to people for minor illnesses. In some cases he calls up doctors and briefs them about the patients. The doctors then tell him what to recommend to the patients.

Karimul Haque

¡°So far I have saved over 3,500 lives. I have taken patients who have met with an accident, patients suffering from Diarrhoea and other major ailments to the hospitals. I help around fifteen nearby villages of my district,¡± Karimul adds with a hint of pride in his wavering voice.

Karimul with the help of a long piece of cloth tie patients on his back and drive them to hospital. ¡°I even carry one of the family members of the patient to take care of the patient while I relentlessly ride the bike,¡± he added.

Karimul Haque

¡°I am Muslim. But cutting across all religion and cultural barriers, I help people. As I feel we all are children of the same god,¡± asserts Karimul.

¡°Not only this, with the help of Block Development Officer and Sub-Divisional Officer, I manage to serve ration free of cost to people living below the poverty line or people who starve and have no money to eat. I also get old clothes, blankets from town and cities and give them to needy,¡± he further adds.

Karimul Haque

Karimul has two sons and two daughters. Both the daughters are married and his one son works as mobile mechanic. The second son and Karimul¡¯s wife help him in his endeavour.

Denied government assistance, Karimul never gave up hope, he believes there are good people in the world and these are the same people who unexpectedly crop up to help him during tiring times, from financial assistance to all the nurses and doctors who support him and praise him for his good deeds. The man who earns a meagre Rs 4,000 a month saves a thousand rupees for his motorcycle so that he never needs to turn anyone down. Having seen his dedication the manager of the tea estate where he works has also increased his salary by a thousand rupees recently.

Karimul Haque

Karimul¡¯s phone is available 24*7. It was a Sunday evening and the time was nearing eight in the evening while talking to us, his ambulance cell phone starts ringing, having received the call, he talks to the caller, addresses the ailment and the address and Karimul is off to saving lives again.