Dr. Dhanpat Rai Nagpaul
(Padma Shri, 1975 – Medicine)

In the long battle against tuberculosis in India, one name stands out among the architects of organised national control: Dr. Dhanpat Rai Nagpaul. Born in 1920, he dedicated his career to turning scattered efforts into a systematic, district-based programme that reached deep into rural India.

As Director of the National Tuberculosis Institute (NTI) in Bangalore, he played a central role in refining and expanding the District Tuberculosis Programme that had been conceptualised in the early 1960s. Under his leadership the programme was established in most districts of the country. He oversaw large-scale training of medical officers and paramedical workers, monitored implementation, and fed practical lessons back to central and state authorities. His papers on the concept and outline of the district programme, socio-epidemiological studies of clinic attendance, and the place of sputum microscopy in case-finding became foundational references for tuberculosis workers across India.

Colleagues remembered a precise, thoughtful physician who never lost sight of the human cost of the disease. One younger doctor, frustrated by patients who defaulted on long courses of treatment, once asked him how to keep morale high.
Nagpaul replied evenly, “Tuberculosis is not only a bacillus; it is also poverty, distance and fear. Our job is to make the treatment easier to complete than the disease is to endure. Patience and organisation are as important as the drugs.”

After his years at NTI he continued to contribute as Vice-Chairman of the Tuberculosis Association of India and through writing and advisory work. In 1975 the Government of India recognised his services with the Padma Shri.

Dr. Dhanpat Rai Nagpaul passed away in 2017 at the age of ninety-seven. He left behind a quieter but enduring legacy: the organisational backbone of India’s tuberculosis control effort and the conviction that effective public-health programmes must be practical, district-centred and attentive to the lives of ordinary patients.