Munishwar Chander Dawar
A Jabalpur doctor and 1971 war veteran who charged patients Rs 2 from 1972, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2023. He died in 2025.
Munishwar Chander Dawar was a doctor who practised in Jabalpur for about 50 years and was known for charging his patients almost nothing. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of medicine, from Madhya Pradesh [1].
Partition, medicine and the Army
Dawar was born on 16 January 1946 in Montgomery district of what was then Punjab province, now in Pakistan, and his family moved to Jalandhar at Partition [2]. He went to school there and did his pre-medical course at D.A.V. College, Jalandhar, before studying medicine at the Government Medical College in Jabalpur [2]. He then joined the Indian Army as a captain and served in the 1971 war with Pakistan, receiving the Poorvi Star and Sangram medals, before retiring early on health grounds [2].
A two-rupee fee
He started practising in Jabalpur in 1972 with a fee of two rupees [2]. He raised it only slowly, to three rupees in 1986, five in 1997 and ten in 2012, and to twenty rupees in November 2021 after 49 years of practice [2]. His low-cost care helped the poorer people of Jabalpur and the villages around it [2].
He was honoured by more than 40 institutions, among them with the Jan Shakti Samman in 1994 and a gold medal for social service from the Madhya Pradesh branch of the Indian Medical Association in 2009 [2].
Dawar died in Jabalpur on 4 July 2025, aged 79 [3].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2023: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 21 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2023: citation for Munishwar Chander Dawar — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 21 October 2026.
- [3] Padma awardee Dr Dawar renowned for treating patients for nominal fee passes away at 79 — The Week (PTI). Accessed 21 October 2026.
Last updated . First draft prepared with AI assistance; reviewed and fact-checked by a person before publishing. Report a correction
