Sambalpur: A 56-year-old man of Hirakud town has been rescuing homeless and mentally ill people in Sambalpur and other western Odisha districts since 2015. Bipin Bihari Panda, who works in Hindalco, started the initiative, ‘Parichaya‘, by helping a homeless woman sitting near Hirakud College in 2015. It is now an organised effort that has changed the lives of 565 people in the past 10 years.

Now, 10-15 youths involved with the organisation work to shift mentally challenged people to shelters in various parts of the state. Around 70 homeless individuals have been reunited with their families in the last one decade by Bipin and his team.
Homeless women are taken to the Missionaries of Charity at Kuluthkani area in Sambalpur or Jajpur. Bipin’s empathy does not stop there. After some months of being rescued and being shifted to a shelter, Bipin tries to find out the address of the inmate and contacts local reporters to publish news about their willingness to return home.
Through reports filed in local papers and with assistance of local police officers, who coordinate with Bipin, the rescued people are reunited with their families.
A 37-year-old man returned home to Keonjhar after 16 years, thanks to the efforts of Bipin, who rescued him from the streets of Hirakud and took him to Cuttack for mental treatment. The rescued man was a student of Ravenshaw College (now university) and an active student union member but was found roaming the streets after he lost his mental balance.
An inmate in Kuluthkani was an intermediate student from Chhattisgarh who left her home after getting low marks in a exam; she was reunited with her family after four years. These examples give Bipin hope that his efforts are not in vain. “The love I receive after a homeless person is reunited with his/her family is priceless,” said Bipin.
“It hurts me when a woman is found homeless. It is better to shift her to a home where she will be safe and taken care of,” he said.
Bipin started the rescue, cleaning and shifting of homeless and mentally ill people to shelters with his own money. He is now assisted financially by many people and even the district administration in the noble cause.
Bipin and his team are now taking care of 31 inmates of a home for the mentally ill in Sambalpur district, who were rescued by the administration after its secretary was arrested on charges of torture and sexually assaulting women.