Patna: Every evening, as daylight fades behind Maranpur in Gaya, patients begin gathering outside a small clinic. By 5pm, Dr Sanket Narayan Singh, now 75, a dermatologist, takes his place on a plain wooden chair and begins work that often continues until 4 or 5 the next morning. By the time he leaves, nearly 300 patients have usually been examined.Many walk out without paying anything. Some leave a Rs10 or Rs100 note on the table. No one is questioned about what they can afford. For Dr Singh, consultation fees are not a measure of income but a means to sustain service.
Those who pay fall into two fixed slabs – Rs10 and Rs100. The amount collected is divided into four parts. Three parts are channelled back into society, supporting the poor, funding education and covering medical expenses for those who cannot afford treatment. Only one part is retained for his basic personal needs and clinic expenses.“Money has a purpose. It should circulate back to people,” he said.An alumnus of ANMMCH, Gaya, Dr Singh joined the medical college hospital in 1980 and later worked as a medical officer with ESI. He eventually resigned from both positions, saying he could not “compromise on his principles”. In 1984, he began private practice in Gaya, opting for a more demanding but principled route. Since then, service to society has remained central to his work.Of the nearly 300 patients he sees daily, around 200 are not charged any consultation fee. About 100 elderly and disabled patients receive medicines for free. Soldiers, policemen, monks and senior citizens above 75 are never charged.His work extends well beyond the clinic. Over the years, Dr Singh has taken responsibility for more than 80 orphaned children. Each child has been placed with a different family. Their identities are kept confidential to safeguard dignity. He has also funded the education of several underprivileged children. One of them, Dr Ramudgar from the Jamuar area of Gaya, completed his entire medical education at ANMMCH with Dr Singh’s support and is now a practising doctor.For the past 30 years, Dr Singh has also supported around 100 elderly and disabled people in his native village Dumri in Saran district and in nearby panchayats.His personal life has been marked by hardship. Polio in childhood left him physically disabled. He later lost his only son, Aditya Narayan, in a road accident, followed by the death of his wife, Margarita Singh, even as his welfare work continued. These losses did not alter his resolve.Bihar assembly Speaker Prem Kumar said, “Dr Sanket Narayan Singh is a living example of humanity. In an age of commercial medicine, his life reminds us what service truly means.”
