Meet ‘Ambulance Dada’, who saved over 7000 lives, lost his mother due to an ‘ambulance’

The mother of Karimul Haque of Dhalabari village in West Bengal could not be saved as she was late in reaching the hospital. Karimul Haq, 57, had to decide whether to try to forget the tragedy after this unexpected loss or to cherish his mother’s memory in a meaningful way. Karimul decided to borrow money to buy a motorcycle and start helping his community by getting sick patients to hospitals on time. He began assisting anyone in need of quick emergency care, including people injured in vehicle accidents, people with health issues, and everyone else. He is now known as the “Bike-Ambulance Dada” and provides round-the-clock free ambulance bike ferry service to make it easier for villagers to reach medical facilities quickly.

Who is Ambulance Dada?

Karimul Haque takes great pride in the wild surroundings around his home. A forest known for the one-horned rhinoceros, which rangers are actively protecting, sits on one side and lush tea plantations on the other. In West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, Haque, formerly a tea plantation labourer, is at work in his own unique way, providing emergency medical care to people.

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Ambulance-Dada: How does the journey begin?

Karimul Haq experienced a tragedy that changed his life forever in 1995 when he could not find an ambulance to take his ailing mother to the hospital. Finally, his mother has a heart attack and dies. As a result, he decided to help others in the event of a medical emergency. When one of his colleagues suddenly collapsed in 1998, Karimul strapped him to his back and took him on a motorcycle to a nearby hospital. This is when the concept of a motorcycle ambulance first entered his mind. After this experience, he decided to start his own motorcycle ambulance business and borrowed money to buy his motorcycle. He has assisted more than 7,000 people in need of medical assistance since 1998 operating motorcycle ambulances in more than 20 contiguous areas. He not only provides ambulance services but also gives basic first aid instructions to the local people with the help of doctors.

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Ambulance Grandpa: Transformation

The free ambulance was once simply a motorcycle pulling a sick-carrier that looked like an iron box when it was first introduced. The bike now has a more modern sidecar for the patient which is equipped with an oxygen tank. Two motorcycles and an equal number of four-wheeler vans are used by the service to transport three to four patients each day. A mobile phone number has also been displayed in the bike and ambulance. Sixteen years after taking his first patient to the district hospital in Jalpaiguri, Haque continues to operate his “motorcycle ambulance”.

Bike Ambulance Dada: The Book

Karimul Haque, 57, was the third of six children of his parents and was born in Dhalbari. His mother and father were agricultural laborers, so he left school early to do odd jobs in a local tea garden. According to Biswajit Jha, a former journalist who wrote Haq’s biography two years ago, “he probably studied till the third grade.” Jha’s book, Bike Ambulance Dada: The Inspiring Story of Karimul Haq (Penguin India, 2021) chronicles Haq’s journey as a humanitarian helping the underprivileged and destitute. The first Malayalam translation of this book was received last year.

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Ambulance Dada: Awards and Milestones

The Government of India honored Karimul Haque with the Padma Shri in 2017 for his social services. Star cricketer Virat Kohli, renowned wrestler Sakshi Malik and eminent scientist Madan Madhav Godbole were among the recipients of the award that year. He has won many accolades including the 2012 Exclusive Award from Zee Group’s 24 Ghanta News Channel. He learned to take a selfie with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rashtrapati Bhavan on the eve of Republic Day in 2018. He was also invited to participate in a special Karamveer episode of “Kaun Banega Crorepati 12” in 2021. There are plans to release a Bollywood biopic on the subject after Jha’s book. Haque recently signed a Hindi film about himself with a Mumbai-based producer.

For the mostly tribal town of Dhalabari, ambulance service has been expanded to include a hospital, a nurse training facility and a sewing institute on Haque’s small family land. In 2017, Indian PSU major Indian Oil Corporation and MNC Bajaj Group donated substantial funds to purchase a generator that would power Haque’s hospital and training facilities. A year later a water tank was donated by Kolkata-based NGO, Society for Technology with a Human Face and Tagore Sengupta Foundation, a non-profit organization in Pennsylvania, USA.