A Good Samaritan among auto drivers

If many for various reasons label autorickshaw drivers as a group that fleeces people, there is an odd man among them in Kollam city. K. Robert always stops to help anybody lying ignored on the roadside or pavements.

Mr. Robert, 42, with his autorickshaw named ‘Don Bosco’, has gone to the rescue of 151 such persons since the past 11 years and is ever ready to turn a Good Samaritan whenever the need arises. His acts of kindness have earned such reputation that he is the first person people inform when they happen to see some destitute lying ignored by the roadside. If his autorickshaw has not been hired by anyone, Mr. Robert rushes to the scene.

If the person lying on the road has bruises or wounds he opens up a medicine kit, cleans and dresses the wounds, provides clean clothes for the victim who is then carried into his autorickshaw and then driven to a nearby police station or parish church.

With a clearance letter provided by the police station or parish vicar, Mr. Robert then contacts a long list of shelter homes in the district. On getting a positive reply he takes the person whom he has rescued to be handed over to the care of the shelter home.

Sometimes he travels over 90 km up and down for this act and the expense goes from his pocket.

He told

The Hindu that for some reason he gets badly disturbed if he fails to rescue such people. “Happiness overwhelms me when I later learn that people whom I had rescued had happily joined back their families.”

A few years ago he saved a young woman with two children from the Kollam beach who went to drown her children and commit suicide because of some dispute with her husband. He entrusted her to a convent that day and the woman is today happily reunited with her husband.

The outstanding aspect about him is that he never even expects any reward or recognition for the charity he does.

“I do it because I feel that it is my vocation,” he says. He is well-known at all police stations in the city as a Good Samaritan autorickshaw driver.

In times of need Mr. Robert can be contacted on the phone 9847335445.