Padmashree Awardee, Dr. Arunoday Mondal treats more than 12,000 patients free of cost in the Sundarbans every year. He runs a clinic named ‘Sujan’ and travels 160 km from Kolkata every to week to provide free treatments to the hundreds of people living here. He started this selfless service in 2000 and has been giving free treatment to the needy for the past 23 years.
Every Saturday, 70-year old Dr. Arunoday Mondal and travels about six hours to reach Hingalganj. Hundreds of people stay waiting for the good doctor to arrive. Dr. Mondal says that being a former resident of Sundarbans, he is quite aware of the type of diseases the people of the area are prone and vulnerable to and knows exactly what can work for them.
What inspired this selfless soul to undertake this mission? Actually, Dr. Mondal himself belongs to a backward area, and therefore understands the needs of the needy very well. After obtaining his MBBS from National Medical College and Hospital of Kolkata, he worked at the Dr. B. C. Roy Memorial Hospital for several years. He left his job in 1980 and started treating patients from his own chambers.
His main reason for working for the people of Sundarban was that he wanted to help his community through his knowledge. Today, Dr. Arunoday is known as ‘Sujan of Sundarban’. He truly is a humanitarian doctor, who has saved countless lives