Prakash and Mandakini Amte
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2nd-generation Amtes win Magsaysay
August 1, 2008 From the Archives of ‘‘The Times of India’’: 2008
Kuala Lumpur: Baba Amte’s son and daughter-in-law, Prakash and Mandakini Amte, were on Thursday declared winners of the Ramon Magsaysay award for their contributions to improving the lives of tribals in a remote Maharashtra village through medical care and education.
The doctor couple were among the seven individuals from different countries who have been selected for 2008’s Magsaysay Award, regarded as Asia’s equivalent of the Nobel prize. The Amtes have been selected for the community leadership award, the Magsaysay foundation said in Manila.
They are being recognized for enhancing the capacity of the Madia Gonds (tribals) to adapt positively in today’s India, through healing and teaching and other compassionate interventions, it said.
The husband-wife duo runs a school and a hospital at Hemalkasa village in the underprivileged district of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region for the welfare of the Madia Gond tribals.
Baba Amte, who died in February 2008, had received the Ramon Magsaysay award for public service in 1985, for his contribution to the rehabilitation and care of leprosy patients at his Anandwan ashram in one of the poorest tribal areas in Maharashtra. Prakash and Mandakini continue to follow in his footsteps and treat more than 40,000 tribal patients a year at their 40-bed hospital in Hemalkasa.
Not restricting themselves to healthcare, the couple have also set up a school for the tribal children, which has produced five Gond doctors, who also contribute to their project. Their sons Dighant and Aniket are also doctors who have dedicated their lives to the cause of their parents. IANS
