A Hero in Khakhis – Ravinder Dhariwal

“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”

~Winston Churchill

Few unprecedented events in our life make us to think beyond our regular lives. And various experiences suggests that a huge loss of life can be avoided with a 15 mins small effort. 

Undoubtedly the most precious gift which we can give to someone, is “Life”. That’s what a young man in Khaki thinks. And it would be worth saying that we can give a life to someone, even if we have nothing to offer but our blood.

That is why Ravinder Dhariwal, a 28 years old constable with 6^th Battalion, Delhi Police has chosen to be known as “Juice Ke Deewane” amongst his peers. A social media post by someone has made him to think beyond his daily routine and the post was about a blood requirement by someone.

In 2016, one fine day, Ravinder was reading another social media post about blood donation by Pushkar from Rohtak district in Haryana. He got curious to know more about the blood donation as in the post it was mentioned that everyone can donate blood. Ravinder kept thinking about going for his first blood donation but he had 100’s of questions in his mind and the God has decided to give him a chance. After few days when he was travelling in a train from his home to Delhi, he met same Pushkar in the train. As soon as he met him he has clarified all his doubt about blood donation and the process of it.

Via Pushkar, Ravinder was introduced to “Vakt De, Rakt De” initiative by Pushkar and his friends. And then the day arrived for which Ravinder was awaiting, on 1^st Dec’16 he has done his first blood donation to a patient who was undergoing for a liver transplant at ILBS hospital After his first blood donation he got to know that he can not donate blood for next 3 months. He kept an eye on the conversation in the social media group and then found that he can help with platelets donation as well, which he can do every fortnight. Ravinder then started donating blood platelets as well.

In 2018, Ravinder created a social media group and given a name to it, its known as “Rakt Sevak Delhi NCR”. After hearing the process from Ravinder, 700+ active volunteers from various departments like Delhi Police, Army, BSF etc has joined hands with him for the noble cause. After every donation they started sharing their numbers with hospitals for the blood requirement during emergency situations. Ravinder himself has donated WBC (white blood cells) once. It is very rarest of rare kind of donation.

During corona time 200 plus donations done. Sharing number with hospitals for blood requirements. Numbers saved with blood group and area location. Ravinder’s passion for helping the community and saving the life didn’t stopped here, he has registered himself for stem cell donation as well. The match possibility as per Ravinder is one in every 5 lacs. And, now he is planning to get himself registered for fully body donation. He has organised a blood donation camp in his village once and collected 163 units of blood. So far via his group the team have done more than 1200 donations including 10 plus plasma donations (by his colleagues from Delhi Police: Ct Lakhan Gurjar, Ct Omprakash, Sachin, Ct Virender, Ct Bhupender).

While talking to Ravinder and asking him, he said “His two friends are his Idol. Amit Phogat (another Hero in Khaki from Delhi Police who has donated blood 63 times) and Pushkar from Rohtak are his inspiration”. 

He then mentioned that they face multiple challenges sometime, some are driven by misconception about the blood donation like the donor will feel weakness if he donates blood, sometime hospitals has their fixed timings for donation. During Corona time the demand for blood donation and plasma donation is very high. Many a times people laughed at him and said “Pagal hai kya”, itna donation karte ho” ( Are you gone mad). But his family is supporting his passion and he is thankful to his family members for allowing him to live his passion.

Further telling about blood donation, Ravinder added that “Awareness is the key and he is putting his best efforts to create awareness about blood donation so that more and more people come forward to help each other in saving more human life”. He further added that “After starting blood donation he never fell ill and always feel high in energy because blood donation activity works as blood purifier also”.  He then laughed and shared that people call him “Fruti aur Juice ke Deewane” (Lovers of Juice).

Ravinder has completed his BBA from MDU, Rohtak and joined Delhi police soon after that at the age of 21 as a birthday celebration on 5^th Oct’12. He is from village Mitathal in  Bhiwani District of Haryana. His father is a farmer and he is blessed with 2 kids. Ravinder celebrates his birthday on 9^th Oct by donating blood and sharing happiness.