At 90, continuing to serve humanity may perhaps be the last thought on the mind of many men his age. Not Dr Lal Singh, the veteran homoeopath who has been practising homoeopathy here for the past 45 years.
For Dr Singh, it has been a long journey. Recipient of the Life Time Achievement award and the Homoeo Ratna award by the Board of Homeopathic System of Medicine, Delhi, Dr Singh served in the biochemistry department of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) from 1954, for 33 years. During this long period, Dr Singh developed his keen interest for homoeopathy and went on to pursue a degree in homoeopathy from the Nehru Homoeopathy Medical College here and also successfully completed his DHMS in 1970. Since then, he started his charitable practice.
Singh said, “My aim was to serve the suffering humanity and I chose homoeopathy because it is not harsh on the body and provides permanent cure to diseases. Homoeopathy medicines are pocket-friendly and thus can be beneficial for many poor people,” Dr Singh added.
About four decades ago, Dr Lal Singh did not have enough money to open a personal clinic and thus used to practice from his home. Today, he has hundreds of patients queuing up outside his clinic every day. He charges a nominal one-time fee and does not charge for subsequent visits for the rest of the year. Along with the treatment, he also provides patients with medicines free of cost. He even has several VIP and VVIP patients who flock to him for homoeopathic treatment. It is not only him, but both his sons, Dr Amarjit Singh and Dr Sanjeev Singh Chawla, and his grandson Dr Gurshabad Chawla, are doctors too.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Dr Amarjit Singh graduated in DHMS from Chandigarh Medical College, and has been practicing since 1985. He said, “As a kid, I used to see patients queuing up outside our house and we as kids used to help our father as his compounder. When patients returned to report their progress, or after being healed, it was indeed a moment of pride. This is what made us want to become like him.”
With the mission of “Humanity First”, Dr Lal Singh also launched a charitable trust, Dr Lal Singh’s Foundation, with the guidance of his two sons. The Foundation launched three years ago has been working towards the field of education, health, humanity, and development.
The Foundation has also adopted a village in Haryana’s Sonipat district for the purpose of developing it. It has been working towards providing free medical treatment to all villagers and imparting skill development training to youths along with building roads and other developmental works.
The Foundation has also been working with Tihar jail inmates to provide them therapeutic healing at a dispensary inside the jail premises. The Foundation also has mobile dispensaries that provide remedies and medicines free. “I have always believed that one should not sell treatment and treat diseases as merchandise,” Dr Lal Singh said.