My name is Ashish Dutta – but for decades now people have known me as D. Ashish. My plan was simple - to collect the unused medicines from richer city homes and hand them out to poor and needy people in my neighbourhood.

For over 20 years, I have worked away with my team of volunteers quietly and I feel happy that I have been able to encourage people all over my country to replicate what I am doing in Kolkata.

When I used to hear the crying I knew it often meant the death of a family member who could not afford medical treatment. I thought of all the unused medicine that lies around in thousands of homes – a strip from which only two pills have been used, or maybe a strip totally used up save for one or two tablets.

I got together with a few friends and started collecting medicines just from our neighbourhood and soon formed a bank of medicine. Today the medicine bank is the last ray of hope for many poor people who would not otherwise have been able to afford a treatment.

Our routine in the beginning was to go from door-to-door every Sunday in a small team and collect unused medicines.

At first, people used to give us whatever was lying unused at home - even if it was rubbish. There was one lady who gave me empty toothpaste tubes and hair oil bottles! But we accepted it everything a smile because we knew that if we asked people to sort out the medicine and then give to us, no one will be interested.

The beginning was not easy. We had to deal with issues like where the medicine will go, how to collect it, and how to get it to the people - and more importantly how and who will decide whether the medicine was good or bad for them. Later on, people from the medical field, especially doctors and medical representatives, helped us out and our task became easier.

But that tiny local medicine bank, run by a handful of helpers with the aim of providing free medicine to poor people, has today developed into a huge social health network.

Not only do we have centres all over West Bengal, we also increased our services. Now we have facilities for cardiac check ups like ECG and provisions to provide free pacemakers, pathological facilities like blood tests and a doctor who comes every Saturday to attend to the patients.

All the facilities are free except that the people have to buy a token for Rs. 2 ($0.05) before using the services. And anyone who comes to us has to have a valid prescription - which must be a current one – before we will give them the medicine on the prescription.

With pacemakers, we need a certificate from the doctor and a detailed report about his health conditions before proceeding.

I started doing this as a young man - when I was 19-years-old, working on my own collecting medicines and giving them to people. Then, after I finished university, I started the bank properly and found other people to help me. Now I 45 and have dedicated my working life to the medicine bank and I have no regrets.

Initially however, my parents opposed this unusual path that I chose for myself. All parents want their sons to follow a certain route of life and success and from that point of view, no doubt my parents were very disappointed. They didn’t try to stop me as such, but they didn’t support me either.

The way I see it is that when I started out I only had one set of parents but now, because of my work, I have gained many sets of 'parents' and they are as important to me as my own mother and family. Sadly, my father is no longer here, but my mother now realises the importance of my work.

The medicine bank runs purely on donations from people. We do not receive grants or any monetary help from any private or government institutions. We approach doctors, hospitals and nursing homes. We also approach people in apartments and buildings. We have boxes set up in government offices where people can donate the medicines.

We have seen that out of 100 people, about 70 people will throw away unused medicines. These are all medicines that can be put together to form a bank and used to help poor people instead of being wasted.

I've just been given a Real Hero Award, by CNN-IBN, for my work with the medical bank. This is my first major award but awards do not interest me much as my real reward is the cooperation of the people.

We've still got lots of plans for the bank. We want to involve more people and to provide service to more people. In the future we would like to build a care unit for children and also provide an emergency unit.

In this age of globalization, regard for humanity is getting lost and our aim to make sure no human being is neglected or disrespected.

When I am out in the road, I am greeted by so many people. Some want to know when they can send over the spare medicines while others want to provide a helping hand. And this is my real achievement - the love of the people. When I walk on the streets, people come up to me with good wishes for what we are doing and that is my award – nothing matters more than that.