Born across a new border
Munishwar Chander Dawar was born on 16 January 1946 in Montgomery district of undivided Punjab, an area that is now in Pakistan. After Partition in 1947, his family moved to Jalandhar. He studied at N. D. Victor Higher Secondary School and did his pre-medical course at D.A.V. College, Jalandhar.
He then went to Jabalpur and earned his MBBS at Government Medical College, now Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College; reports date this to 1967. Later newspaper accounts say his father died when he was about two and that he grew up in hardship, though his official citation does not mention this.
A doctor in the 1971 war
His official Padma profile records that he joined the Indian Army as a Captain, served during the 1971 India–Pakistan war, and later took early retirement on health grounds. Government publications add that he was posted on the Bangladesh side of the war and treated wounded soldiers, and that he served for about a year before retiring in 1972.
He received three service medals: the Poorvi Star (1971), the Sangram Medal (1971) and the 25th Independence Anniversary Medal. These are medals for service in the campaign, not gallantry awards.
1972: a clinic that charged ₹2
Back in Jabalpur, he opened a private practice in 1972 and set his consultation fee at just ₹2. Over the next five decades he raised it only a few times: to ₹3 in 1986, ₹5 in 1997, ₹10 in 2012 and ₹20 in November 2021.
His official citation says this low fee helped the poorer people of Jabalpur and the villages around it. Many news stories simplify the timeline, but the citation gives the most precise record.
‘Dawar ki Dawa’
In Jabalpur his clinic came to be known as ‘Dawar ki Dawa’, a name the Government of India also used when it highlighted him in its Padma outreach. A January 2026 government profile describes his clinic as always full, and recalls a teacher who taught him to see medicine as service, not a way to exploit people.
When his Padma Shri was announced in 2023, he told a news agency that his aim had always been to serve people, which is why he kept his fees so low, and that patience and hard work were the root of whatever he had achieved. Reports from that year said he saw around 200 patients a day. Local reports also describe patients who could not pay being treated anyway, leaving whatever they could afford on the table.
Beyond the prescription
His work was not only about treatment. The 2026 government profile notes that he also worked against drug addiction, and older reporting describes him persuading patients to give up tobacco, bidis, cigarettes and alcohol.
Honoured, at last, by the nation
Local and medical bodies recognised him long before the nation did: the Jan Shakti Samman, presented by T. N. Seshan in Jabalpur in 1994; the Chikitsa Ratna and the Dr. S. K. Mukherjee Gold Medal of the Madhya Pradesh Indian Medical Association for social service, both in 2009; a Certificate of Appreciation from the Jabalpur Collector in January 2020; and an honour from the state’s Health Education Minister in April 2022. More than 40 institutions felicitated him over the years.
On 25 January 2023 the Government of India named him for the Padma Shri in Medicine. President Droupadi Murmu presented it at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 5 April 2023. Prime Minister Narendra Modi later met him during a visit to Jabalpur.
4 July 2025
Dr. Dawar died in Jabalpur on 4 July 2025, at the age of 79. By then his name had been linked with affordable healthcare in the city for more than half a century.
Why his story matters
The headline is the ₹20 fee, but the real achievement is keeping care affordable for almost fifty years, through inflation, a changing economy and the growing business of medicine. An early end to his Army career could have been a full stop. Instead it became the start of his longest chapter.
Accessibility is medical impact too. Not every contribution is a new drug or a new machine. Sometimes it is keeping treatment within reach, day after day, for decades.
Watch
Sources
- Government of India: Padma Shri 2023 citation
- President's Secretariat / Padma Gazette 2023
- New India Samachar, February 2023
- New India Samachar, January 2026
- The Indian Express
- Aaj Tak / news agency interview, 2023
- PTI / ThePrint obituary, July 2025
- NDTV MP-CG video interview, April 2024
- Navbharat Times and regional reporting
- static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2023/apr/doc202345178301.pdf
- newindiasamachar.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/flipbook/2026/Jan/2nd/English/files/basic-html/page61.html