Dr. Rabindra Narain Singh (Rabindra Narayan Singh), Padma Shri

Dr. Rabindra Narain Singh (Rabindra Narayan Singh), Padma Shri
Orthopaedic Surgeon & Social Service Leader

A patient from a remote village once asked him after free treatment, “Doctor, why do you still come every week to treat people for free after so many years?”

Dr. Rabindra Narain Singh replied simply, “My father taught me that knowledge and skill gain true value only when they serve the people of our own land. Healing is both a profession and a duty.”

That sense of duty has guided his medical career and public service.

Rabindra Narain Singh was born in 1945 in Golma village, Saharsa district, Bihar, to Sri Radhaballabh Singh (a district and sessions judge) and Srimati Indu Devi. He completed his MBBS in 1970 and MS in Orthopaedics in 1976 from Patna Medical College and Hospital. He briefly taught Anatomy at Nalanda Medical College before going to the United Kingdom for higher training. There he earned the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FRCS) and an MCh in Orthopaedics from the University of Liverpool. He also taught Anatomy at Queen’s Medical College, Nottingham.

Despite attractive offers to settle abroad, he returned to India at his father’s insistence to serve his motherland. In Patna he established and has directed orthopaedic centres, including the Anup Institute of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation and the Radha Vallabh Health Care & Foundation at Kankarbagh. He has also been associated with Savera Cancer and Multispecialty Hospital and runs a hospital in his native village that he visits regularly. He served as President of the Bihar Orthopaedic Association (2006–07) and holds positions with the Indian Red Cross Society (Bihar), the Institute Ethics Committee of AIIMS Patna, and other professional bodies.

For decades he has provided free treatment to patients (notably on Tuesdays through the Red Cross) and supported causes for the differently-abled and underprivileged. In recognition of his medical and social contributions, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri in 2010. He has also received a Gold Medal from the Governor of Bihar for Red Cross work and was named an “Icon of Bihar” by Outlook magazine.

Dr. Singh continues to combine clinical orthopaedics with institutional and social service.

“Medicine is complete,” he believes, “only when it reaches the poorest patient with the same skill and respect given to any other.”

From advanced training in the United Kingdom to building orthopaedic care and free services in Bihar, Dr. Rabindra Narain Singh has dedicated his life to healing and serving his home state and country.