NO CHARGE: INDIAN RICKSHAW DRIVER WHO PUTS OTHERS FIRST
▶ Inspired by his parents, Shinde has taken thousands of coronavirus patients to hospitals
An Indian rickshaw driver worked tirelessly to take 15,000 people to hospitals during the coronavirus crisis at no charge.
Jitendra Shinde, 50, said that 1,000 of his passengers had symptoms of the coronavirus.
Each passenger was recorded in a diary by the driver, who put helping other people before his health and financial security.
When Mr Shinde first wore personal protection equipment, the entire community was afraid of the sight. Little did they know that he had a mission.
“No one came close to me,” he said.
He started using his auto rickshaw to help patients.
“It was an SOS call. A labourer whose oxygen saturation level fell below 90 had tested Covid-positive and he called me,” Mr Shinde said.
This was in the last week of March 2020.
Mr Shinde took the labourer to the Kolhapur CPR Hospital in western Maharashtra state.
Fourteen days later, he received a call from the man, who said: “I’ve defeated Covid.”
Mr Shinde moved on to another request to take a patient to the nearest hospital.
Now, he receives several hundred SOS calls every week and ferries patients with any medical condition to hospitals in Kolhapur city free of charge.
He started this service on March 24, 2020 – the day Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the world’s biggest lockdown, affecting 1.3 billion people.
“If someone tests Covidpositive, society makes them a pariah. How will such people reach hospitals or quarantine centres?” Mr Shinde asked.
With India now reporting more than 300,000 new cases a day, health infrastructure is strained across most of the country.
Mr Shinde seeks updates on the availability of beds in hospitals and quarantine centres.
“First, I ask people their location, the problems they are facing, and then I take them to the nearest possible hospital.”
His list of passengers included pregnant women and people with disabilities. “Within a year, I dropped off 70 pregnant women to hospitals,” he said.
He always sanitises the hands of patients before letting them aboard the auto rickshaw.
Kolhapur district has the highest death rate in Maharashtra at 2.7 per cent.
“In several cases, no one came to lift the bodies of the deceased Covid patients,” Mr Shinde said.
At such times, he helped to move the bodies and perform death rituals according to the beliefs of the deceased.
While ambulances in Delhi and other parts of India are charging as much as 8,500 rupees ($115) for a five-kilometre journey, he said he would not take money.
So far, Mr Shinde has spent 150,000 rupees of his savings to help people. He spent another 5,000 rupees to purchase PPE kits.
“No one has come forward to help me, and neither do I expect them to,” he said.
“Every day I have to spend at least 200 rupees on fuel.”
Mr Shinde said people feared him when he wore PPE.
“They think I am Covidpositive, or I might spread the virus,” he said.
For recovering patients and those isolating at home, he delivers medicine, vegetables and essential groceries, funding everything through paid trips for passengers who are not ill.
Mr Shinde said his motivation to help came from his childhood when “I couldn’t even bid goodbye to my ailing parents with dignity”.
He was 10 years old at the time.
“Whenever I help any patient, it feels like I am helping my parents, and that’s why I do this work every day,” he said.
Last year, after each shift, he would isolate after getting home from work.
“Now, I’ve taken both doses of the vaccine,” he said. “However, I still wear a mask.”
There have been times when he was caught by the police for breaking lockdown rules.
He tried to explain his urgency, but if that does not work, “I dial senior police officials, who let me go”.
Not a day goes by that Mr Shinde does not hear from people he helped.
“That joy is what I live for,” he said.
Whenever I help any patient, it feels like I am helping my parents, and that’s why I do this work every day
JITENDRA SHINDE
Auto rickshaw driver