Since childhood, Priyabrata Panda has firmly believed in the adage ‘Service to mankind is service to God.’ In the last 10 years, he has been engaged in a range of philanthropic activities, from helping to connect missing persons with their families to assisting the destitute in getting medical aid. His unrelenting efforts went a long way in helping a 24-year-old schizophrenic man find his family after he inadvertently strayed from his home in Brahmagiri ending up on a footpath in the state capital. Found lying disoriented on the pavement, his clothes in tatters, a leg injured and bleeding, he was rushed to the Capital Hospital by Priyabrata who spotted him. Writhing in pain, the young man couldn’t remember how he reached Bhubaneswar. Priyabrata traced the young man’s family and helped him reunite with them.
Priyabrata has seen many such cases in the last ten years. He has rescued as many as 100 unidentified persons and helped them reunite with their families. His philanthropic activities are not confined to rescuing missing persons alone. He also organises eye donation and blood donation camps. In 2016, he received the state youth award for his role in the field of social activities.
Priyabrata provides first aid treatment to destitute street dwellers in distressed condition, shifts them to hospitals, traces their family members and unites them with their families. That apart, when he finds anyone who is deprived of healthcare services for some reason, he takes them to hospital and helps them get quality healthcare.
Priyabrata says, “When I was in Class III, I was deeply influenced by the poem ‘Tuma Pari Chota Pila Tie’ based on the famous litterateur and reformer of modern Odisha, Madhusudan Das. I began to engage in social work. I was hardly 10 when I called upon my friends to repair a bumpy road. At the age of 15, I constructed a bamboo bridge over a canal to ease communication facilities for residents of Nanakar village,in Derabis block of Kendrapara.
Born to priest Duryodhan and homemaker Prabhati Panda, Priyabrata feels sorry when elderly people are neglected and dumped by their children. Recalling an incident in this regard, he says, “I came across a septuagenarian at OMP Square in Cuttack who had been abandoned by his sons after he stopped earning. The grey-haired and bearded man had wounds all over his body. Some of the wounds were badly infected. The smell was unbearable so much so that passersby were seen covering their noses. When I asked about his identity, he asked me for food saying, ‘I have not eaten anything for the last four days.’ After feeding him, I asked again about his identity. I got to know that he had been a government servant. After his retirement, he was not treated well by his sons. And a day came when they threw him out of the house. I sat near the old man, provided first aid and cleaned the wounds, and arranged to shift him to a hospital. When a few news channels telecast the plight of the old man, his sons took him back home after begging for pardon.”
Priyabrata Panda continues: “I just wonder how people can do this to their parents who have left no stone unturned to fulfill all the wishes of children. I have come across many such cases where either the parents are thrown out of their house when torture by children becomes unbearable.”
Priyabrata Panda says that a number of those he has rescued from the streets are mentally-challenged. It is pitiful to find them in the streets again because of the lack of shelter homes, he says.
Priyabrata came to Silver City in search of a job after completion of graduation from Loknath college. He decided to make a career in social service after listening to an interview of social activist Sushant Sahoo. “I was highly impressed by Sahoo’s dedication to the cause of common people. It was then that I decided to do social work. My parents were not happy with my decision initially. Now, they do not have any objection because they know what I am doing is a noble deed,” says Priyabrata, smilingly.
Priyabrata describes how doctors sometimes do not understand the plight of poor people. “I was on my way to Konark when I happened to hear the person sitting next to me talking to a co-passenger. I heard him saying that he had gone to Bhubaneswar-based AIIMS for his three-year-old daughter’s heart surgery. The concerned doctor, however, referred the case to AIIMS Delhi. The man expressed to his co-passenger his inability to take his daughter to Delhi as it was difficult for him to bear the medical and accommodation costs. When I heard this, I extended my support to him and wrote to the Chief Minister’s grievance cell. The AIIMS doctors referred the case to Apollo hospital after an instruction came from the Chief Minister’s Office in this regard. I helped that person avail some funds under the Odisha State Treatment Fund. And the operation was successful. I felt my effort was rewarded when I saw the smile on the little girl’s face.”
Priyabrata then adds: “I would like to urge everyone to do their bit for society. It is the moral duty of every human being to help another human in distress. One Priyabrata Panda or Sushant Sahoo cannot bring positive changes in the life of hapless people. Everyone has to chip in and serve the needy. The satisfaction you get from serving the needy is immeasurable.
RASHMI REKHA DAS, OP