“Omkarnath spends his days searching New Delhi for drugs. A call to the phone number printed boldly on his saffron-colored tunic reveals his alternate identity: “Hello, I am Medicine Baba”. The chatty, 79-year-old retired blood-bank technician has been collecting unused prescription drugs from the affluent for the past eight years, and distributing whatever hasn't expired to patients who need medicines they cannot afford. Omkarnath, who like many Indians uses only one name, is not a trained pharmacist, and must see a doctor's prescription before he'll help supply any drug. He doesn't charge, though he says the value of what he gives away each month is more than $9,000.

“Every bungalow in Delhi has extra medicines, but they are throwing them in their dustbins”, says Omkarnath, who walks with a limp after an accident that left him with dislocated bones in both legs. “Medicine Baba” – baba is an honorific term meaning wise man – walks more than 7 kilometers (4 miles), stopping door-to-door to ask for unused medicines. On one such trip Sunday, he had collected a huge bagful of donated prescriptions in just an hour and a half. Some 40 percent of India's 1.2 billion people have no access to modern medicines because they are too expensive or simply unavailable in government hospitals where supplies are often scarce.


Meanwhile, India is exporting 45 percent of the $25 billion in pharmaceuticals it produces each year. Omkarnath began his mission after seeing some construction workers get badly injured in New Delhi. He says he followed the men to government hospitals where they were not given treatment and told to find the drugs they needed elsewhere. He says he has built up a stock of drugs and medical equipment worth tens of thousands of dollars from weekend trips to wealthy neighborhoods and more than a dozen collection boxes set up in private clinics around the city. He stores his cache in a small rented room next to his home in the fetid slums of Manglapuri in southwest New Delhi. The room is filled with boxes of common flu tablets, insulin injections and cancer medications. Omkarnath also arranges donations of equipment including hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, nebulizers, wheelchairs, walkers and oxygen machines.

Many nongovernmental organizations work to give medical care to India's needy, and Omkarnath works with some of them to deliver medicines. But Omkarnath's one-man recycling effort is rare if not unique. There are medicine recycling efforts elsewhere, including the United States, but drugs in those cases are generally donated by medical institutions rather than individuals. Dr. Lalima Rangwani distributes medicine Omkarnarth collects. She said at first she wasn't sure she could trust the drugs he collected. “But when he brought the medicines, I checked it out, the batch number, all he has written on the list. So only then I got convinced that these are genuine medicines”, she said. India spends just over 1 percent of its gross domestic product on health care – one of the lowest rates in the world”. – Rishabh R. Jain via The Associated Press

In this June 8, 2015 photo, Omkarnath, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, pays his reverence at a neighborhood temple as he begins his day in New Delhi, India. The chatty, 79-year-old retired blood-bank technician has been collecting unused prescription drugs from the affluent for the past eight years, and distributing whatever hasn't expired to patients who need medicines they cannot afford. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this June 8, 2015 photo, Omkarnath, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, shaves without cream or foam as he gets ready for the day at his rented accommodation at a fetid slum in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this June 27, 2015 photo, Omkarnath, center, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, takes a bus back home after collecting unused medicines from residential colonies in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this June 11, 2015 photo, Omkarnath, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, drinks water after spending an hour shouting out to people to donate unused medicines, in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this June 8, 2015 photo, a part of the tiny living space of Omkarnath, who has also rented a separate small room to store medicines, is occupied by boxes of medicines at a fetid slum in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this June 8, 2015 photo, medicine collected from people around Delhi, are arranged on shelves at a rented store room by Omkarnath, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this June 27, 2015 photo, Omkarnath, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, calls out to people to donate unused medicines at a government colony in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this July 14, 2015 photo, Omkarnath, left, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, visits Dhulichand, second right, who cannot survive without oxygen cylinders, and his wife Rama Devi, to give them money to procure the cylinders, in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this June 8, 2015 photo, a patient waits with a doctor's prescription to receive free medicine from Omkarnath, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this June 8, 2015 photo, Omkarnath, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, sweeps the floor of his rented accommodation at a fetid slum in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this June 8, 2015 photo, Omkarnath, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, puts on his customary saffron colored tunic as he gets ready for the day at his rented accommodation at a fetid slum in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this June 8, 2015 photo, Omkarnath, center, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, gives medicine to the relative of a severely ill patient at his rented medicine store room in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)

In this June 8, 2015 photo, Omkarnath, who goes by the name “Medicine Baba”, sorts out unused medicines donated by people to weed out the expired and used medicines in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Saurabh Das/AP Photo)