Retired from her job with Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, Yojana Burkule, who gives her age as 'above sixty,' is a busy woman. Her normal day is spent in being helpful to people, animals, birds and plants as well. She is popularly known as the woman who takes accident victims to hospital.

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Burkule said she believes in being empathetic. "What is important at that hour of crisis is for someone to take the lead and help, to rush the people to hospital so that they can be saved. I suppose I take the lead as it comes naturally to me because I think of the persons who are in need of help first," she says.

Brought up by parents who lived by the motto of helping the needy all their lives, Burkule was also fortunate to have a husband in Suresh, who helps her to aid others.

"In many cases that I have helped I saw young girls or women involved in accident, I felt that as a woman myself, I need to be by their side," she said.

Once Burkule saw a woman who had met with an accident. Hit by a rickshaw, she was lying flat on the road. There were many bystanders, but no one stepped forward to help. Burkule made a few bystanders help her pick up the lady, and in a rickshaw she took her to the nearest hospital. The doctors later informed the patient's family, but Burkule had already paid for the necessary medicines at her own cost. She kept visiting the patient at the hospital till she was discharged. The lady and her husband both were grateful for the timely help.

Generally, in such cases people are apprehensive about running afoul of the police and the system. But Burkule never fears the police. "I believe that police are helpful, and have experienced it too," she said.

It is not only people that Burkule is compassionate about. She is also known to help stray cattle – cows, bullocks, and street dogs. Nowadays she is on the hunt for cattle with infected feet. She also has a veterinary doctor on call. The roadside tree then becomes a shed for the cattle and a centre of treatment. She also feeds the injured animals, releasing them when they are healed.

What makes her rush to help the needy? "I have a spiritual bend of mind. I believe in god and also in myself. I believe in 'karma' – in doing good. It comes very naturally to me," she said.

Burkule is happy that her five daughters and her family stand by her. "My girls have grown up watching us. Compassion and strength are values inculcated in our family. I am glad that my daughters, too, will follow the same ways."