Dilip Kumar Singh

Dilip Kumar Singh is a general practitioner and farmer from Bihar, and president of a charitable fund named after Dr Yamuna Prasad Singh. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2021 in the field of medicine, from Bihar ^[1].

Training

Singh was born on 26 June 1926 at Barka in Bihar ^[2]. He took his MBBS from Patna Medical College in 1952, and in 1966 a diploma in tropical medicine from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in London ^[2]. He trained at the Royal Infirmary in Liverpool and at hospitals in New York ^[2].

He travelled widely to learn from others. In 1965 he was the only Indian delegate at a world asthma conference in England; in 1973 he was one of three Indian doctors at a world medical conference in Munich; and in 1993 he attended a world conference on ageing in Singapore ^[2]. He also toured farms in the United States, Canada and Europe to study modern farming ^[2].

On horseback with a lantern

From 1952 to 1966 his area had no electricity, no paved roads and no chemist’s shops ^[2]. Singh rode from village to village on horseback, with a helper carrying medicines in a leather bag, and saw patients in the evenings by the light of kerosene lanterns ^[2].

Leprosy, polio and cataracts

Seeing a leprosy patient being cared for at Gandhi’s Wardha ashram moved him to take up the work himself ^[2]. Between 1954 and 1974 he found, treated and helped resettle 382 people with leprosy, and the National Leprosy Organisation in Wardha made him a life member ^[2].

At a time when polio vaccine was not available in India, he imported 1,003 doses from Russia and gave them to village children in a single day ^[2]. In 1968, seeing old villagers blinded by cataracts in both eyes, he started free cataract operations for poor and tribal people, still going on at the time of the award ^[2]. He has also held awareness camps on cancer and on alcohol addiction ^[2].

His honours include a lifetime achievement award from the Indian Medical Association in Bhagalpur in 2015 ^[2].