Meet ‘Padman’ of Namma Bengaluru

Moved by friend’s death, this Unani doctor promotes eco-friendly napkins.

Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

Bengaluru: Meet Dr Mohammed Hussain Shariff K, a Unani physician by profession, who runs a charity to help those affected by floods in the country.

Dr Shariff had organized medical camps at different locations of Srinagar and Baramulla, when Kashmir was devastated the lives of people in 2014. “I accompanied the volunteers of the Kashmir Association of Bengaluru. We have organized free medical camps for the benefit of people affected by floods in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.

With an objective to reach more needy people, he and his friends established Dr India Charitable Trust in 2015. “I happened to do an internship at National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS). I came across many people suffering from various psychological and other problems. Their plight made me join hands with my friends to establish Dr India Charitable Trust,’’ he said.

Shariff said the objective of Dr India Charitable Trust is to help the needy and downtrodden of society to have health, education and overall development. The trust volunteers have visited Bihar to extend a helping hand to the flood-affected people in 2017. Later, the volunteers continued to visit the flood-affected areas whenever it was necessary. They visited Kodagu in 2018 and Kerala in 2019 to provide medical as well as groceries to the flood-affected people.

They have also worked hard to help Covid-affected families in Bengaluru as well as in Tumakuru. “Our team has also helped more than 700 families during Covid-19 pandemic lockdown by providing groceries and other essential supplies, especially oxygen cylinders,” he said.

The volunteers of Dr India Charitable Trust have been supplying blankets to destitute people during the winter in Bengaluru.

Now, he has embarked on distributing eco-friendly sanitary napkins among girl students at government schools. “I got the idea of supplying eco-friendly sanitary napkins when one of my friends died of cervical cancer. She was using an artificial sanitary napkin that affected her health. I do not want others to suffer like my friend had suffered,” he says.

He said that eco-friendly sanitary napkins are being outsourced from tribal families in Madhya Pradesh. “I have to thank my friend Vishal Mehta, a businessman who is supporting me in this mission under Prema Nari Swasthya Yojana. We have already distributed 400 eco-friendly sanitary napkins among the students of a nursing school at KC General Hospital and at Ghousia Maternity Hospital.”

He said that around 200 girl students in Tumakuru were provided sanitary napkins. “These sanitary napkins are reusable and safe. The durability of these sanitary napkins is two to three years and each one costs Rs 60, but we supply them free of cost,” he signs off with a smile.