Manipur Woman Auto Driver Drove COVID-19 Survivor Back Home

Manipur woman awarded for ferrying COVID-19 survivor

Laibi Oinam, a woman auto driver from Manipur volunteered to drop a newly recovered COVID-19 patient by driving her for 8 hours back to her home.

(Photo courtesy: The Quint/Twitter Screen Grab)

With India registering just over 2,90,000 coronavirus cases as of 12 June, the nation becomes the fourth worst-hit country in the world and while that might be a horrific truth, the faith and humanitarian spirit of good samaritans remain unscathed.

One such hero is Laibi Oinam. She is an auto driver in Manipur who recently got awarded by Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh for ferrying a person who recovered from COVID-19 over a 100 km distance, reported news agency PTI.

Laibi drove the patient who recovered in a hospital in Imphal to Kamjong district, a 100 km distance.

She drove for eight long hours during the intervening night of 31 May and 1 June. Laibi had just returned back from Kolkata and volunteered to drive the newly recovered patient because the ambulance service of the state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal, had refused to take her home. The patient who was getting treated at this very hospital hailed from another district which was far from the hospital.

The chief minister of Manipur handed Laibi a cash award of Rs Rs 1,10,000. The award was sponsored by few entrepreneurs of the state as well as by Manipuri expatriates to laud Laibi for her selfless service.

Laibi is a mother of two sons and also the sole earning member of the family.

She even has a documentary film based on her life named “Auto Driver” which has won many awards and accolades, one of which includes best social issue film in the non-feature category at the 63rd National Film Awards in 2015 and Best Short Documentary in the Audience Choice category at the 2017 Women's Voices Now Film Festival.

(With inputs from PTI)