Gurugram, April 24 -- For nearly five decades, Dr Kiran Kukreja, a general physician and gynaecologist, has practised medicine with quiet consistency. But about 20 years ago, she felt that treating patients within clinic walls was not enough; that her work needed to travel beyond prescriptions and into people's lives. That instinct led her to begin organising free medical camps, a commitment she has sustained ever since.

Now 72, and based in Sector 54, Gurugram, Kukreja has taken her work far beyond the city. What began as small awareness sessions has grown into a wide outreach effort across Delhi-NCR and parts of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

The early days, she recalls, were less about treatment and more about ...