The Medicine Baba," Omkar Nath Sharma, 75, spends his days knocking on doors in Delhi's upper and middle class neighborhoods, collecting their leftover medicines and giving them to the poor. Mr. Sharma, a former medical technician ... starts his day at 6 a.m., when he leaves his rented home in Manglapuri, a southern Delhi suburb, and travels by buses on his senior citizen pass to wealthier parts of the city. He has built up a pool of regular contributors in neighborhoods like Green Park, who he calls on when they have medicines they no longer need. Wearing an orange shirt that says "Mobile medicine bank for poor patients," he picks up medicines that he estimates are worth 200,000 rupees, about $3,860, a month, and then distributes them to individuals and charitable clinics for no charge. Mr. Sharma knows that loosely distributing medicine brings real risks, so he said he will only give them out if a patient has a prescription from a doctor. Vimla Rani, a 47-year-old maid, said she is alive because of Sharma's medicines, which help to control her asthma. "I keep on getting inhalers and other medicines from Medicine Baba," she said. "Thousands of poor people die as they can't afford expensive medicines, while at the same time unused medicines worth millions get wasted," Mr. Sharma said. He also distributes medicine to more than a dozen nongovernmental organizations.
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