...And Help Poured in for the Late Dr Rahul Pawar's Family from across the World!

Yogesh Sapkale 04 August 2021

Economy & Nation

Around two months ago, Moneylife wrote how Dr Rahul Pawar, a bright and hard-working young doctor who had risen from abject poverty, had contracted COVID while working to treat patients in Latur. On 26 May 2021, he succumbed to the deadly virus after a long battle with COVID and mucormycosis.

This had a shattering impact on his distraught family, which had not only lost their only hope of rising out of poverty but was left with debts incurred for his treatment and his education as well as a small home loan to get a better roof over their heads. Fortunately, all was not lost, since Dr Rahul’s classmates, seniors and other doctors, who are themselves busy treating COVID patients, rallied around to help and drew attention to the family’s plight.

As of today, the Pawar family has received over Rs27 lakh in the bank account. This includes funds raised during the treatment of Dr Rahul and deposit refunded by MGM Hospital of Aurangabad. Further, the family is expected to receive Rs5 lakh from a pharmaceutical company as compensation, Rs3 lakh under Covid Suraksha Kawach Yojna for medical students in Maharashtra, and a balance of over Rs97,000 from Ketto. In short, the family would be receiving over Rs36 lakh, apart from the Rs1.25 lakh home loan waiver.

A crowdfunding effort on Ketto.org followed and the story touched the hearts of people across the world, who came forward to help with large and small donations. Several of us at Moneylife participated actively in this effort and the campaign ended with 643 persons donating a sum of Rs13,24,011 as support to the Pawar family.

That was not all. Some, such as the Thakur Foundation donated $2,000 (Rs1.45 lakh) directly to the bank account of Dr Pawar’s family. Like him, several others preferred to make direct credits.

Mahindra Rural Housing Finance Ltd, in a compassionate gesture, also agreed to waive the home loan of Rs1.25 lakh at the intervention of chairman Anand Mahindra.

Some seniors of Dr Rahul, like Dr Nilesh Kalyankar, and Dr Shrikant Chavan, batchmates like Dr Prathmesh Patil and roommate Dr Amarnath Gutte started the fund-raising campaign on Ketto.org.

On the Ketto platform, Rs13.24 lakh was raised for the Pawar family. Out of this, Rs11,89,362 has been credited in the account of Vishwanath Pawar, father of Dr Rahul by the fund-raising platform. The balance Rs1,34,649 includes the platform fee of Rs37,020 and about Rs97,629 donated by overseas donors, which will be credited in the next few days.

Earlier in February this year, the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) passed its budget for 2021-22 with a ‘Covid Suraksha Kawach Yojna’ for medical students. In case of the death of the student, family members can get financial assistance of up to Rs3 lakh under the Covid Suraksha Kawach Yojna.

According to Dr Mukund Bhise, head of the department, community medicine (PSM) at MIMSR, Latur, the college has filed an application under the scheme for financial assistance to Dr Rahul's family. Dr Rahul was a student of Latur’s MIMSR.

Earlier, Dr Patil from Nair Hospital, who is chief coordinator and official spokesperson of the Association of State Medical Interns (ASMI) told Moneylife, "What happened with Dr Rahul has shaken every batchmate of ours. We have no answer as to what would happen to our family if there is no insurance protection for us. So, we want the government to assure us that we also get the Rs50 lakh insurance coverage like other healthcare professionals."

Here is a small video of Vishwanath Pawar and Asha Pawar, the parents of Dr Rahul, where they expressed their gratitude for helping them…