Thiruvananthapuram, A 53-year-old diabetologist S. Manoharan who hails from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu and runs his own hospital at Chavara about 80 km from the state capital, is in the news for extending a helping hand to the vulnerable sections of the society. He, along with his friend, has paid the insurance premium for around 1,172 people.

A computer buff, Manoharan has all along been in the forefront of extending a helping hand to the best of his ability, to people whom he feels need help.

He told IANS, when Covid-19 was spreading in his home state, he being a medical professional was thinking on how he could come to the help of the vulnerable who are exposed to the risk of contracting the disease.

"I am a very active person in the social media and I found out that there was an insurance policy - Covid-19 Protection Cover of a premier private company. When I found out the premium was just Rs 159, I started to study in detail and decided, I will do my best to buy this policy for the vulnerable. I also spoke to my social media friend Illongavan Geetha, a top railway official in Chennai, who was the one who told me about this and said he too will chip in and asked me to do it for him also," said Manoharan.

Manoharan has paid for about 50 people in and around his hospital and the rest at his home district in Tamil Nadu.

By now the two have purchased this policy for 1,172 people (672 Illongavan and 500 by Manoharan).

"Chennai was having a good number of Covid-19 cases and I decided to do my bit. I found out there were lot of workers under the railway contractors and decided to get their details and got in touch with Manoharan, who was kind enough to enter all the details on the app. I paid the premium for 672 people in and around my workplace and our railway colony. Once the policy document came on the mobile, I took the print out and gave it to all the people, whose premium, I had paid," said Illongavan.

This policy is valid for one year and anyone who turns Covid-19 positive after 15 days, the policy gets live, such people have to submit their medical certificate from a government doctor stating that the policy holder is positive. Then the insurance company will pay Rs 25,000 to the policy holder.

With both the philanthropists active in the social media, by now they have been approached by their friends and well wishers that they too would like to do this and Manoharan is now busy with it.