How many people in Nevada County have heard of Ilmewala (pronounced “ill-may-wala”) or Kapurthala — two villages in India?

Almost none.

Yet the generosity of just a handful of local residents — mostly patients of Grass Valley physician Dr. Kuldip Gill — is changing lives in the two remote villages in the state of Punjab in western India.

Gill, a native of Ilmewala, is a staff member at the Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital and medical director of Spring Hill Manor on Joerschke Drive. He also has a private practice on Catherine Lane in Grass Valley.

Despite living in the U.S. for 17 years, Gill, 46, visits his native village every year and helps 50 poor families through various humanitarian projects. In past years, Gill has built public toilets and bathrooms, bought fans, refrigerators, bicycles, utensils and clothes for the families and even paid the dowry for a poor girl, Gill said.

“I have a kind of a relation with these poor people,” Gill said. “I’ve seen their needs and how local people (who are not financially disadvantaged) react to their needs. There is no one to help them.

“Moreover, if I was there as a doctor, I might have saved some lives. As I left them and came here, I had a moral obligation not to forget them and help them with their needs. They appreciate that too.”

The 50 families helped by Gill live on land donated by the Indian government, Gill said. They belong to the “scheduled caste” — a special social category created by the Indian government to designate underprivileged people belonging to lower castes.

Most families consist of four to five people who live in a two-room brick house with no bathrooms, Gill added.

“The men mostly work on farms and the women work as domestic help in houses,” Gill said.

On an average, the families have a meager monthly income of $75, he added.

In India, Gill is helped by the Lion’s Club as well as family members in accomplishing his projects, Gill said. On his next trip in July, Gill intends to buy electric meters and cell phones for the 50 families he helps, and also wants to treat sick people in his village, he said. Overall, Gill needs $10,000 of which he’s raised $2,500, he added.

Gill did his bachelor’s degree in medicine from the Government Medical College in Amritsar, Punjab. He then specialized in internal medicine from the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey.

Gill moved with his family to Nevada County in 1997 from Jenkins, Ky., where he was chief of the community hospital. He now lives in The Cedars, a residential community on Highway 174 in Grass Valley.

To contact Soumitro Sen, e-mail ssen@theunion.com or call 477-4229.