Prakash Baba Amte is a social worker living in the state of Maharashtra, India. His wife named Mandakini Amte is also into social service and both were awarded the Magsaysay Award for ‘Community Leadership’ in 2008 for their philanthropic work in the form of the Lok Biradari Prakalp amongst the Madia Gonds in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra and the neighbouring states of Telangana and Madhya Pradesh.
Prakash Amte is the second son of Magsaysay awardee Baba Amte who had studied leprosy, worked at a leprosy clinic and took a course on the disease at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine. In 1949 Baba Amte founded Anandwan, an ashram dedicated to the treatment, rehabilitation, and empowerment of leprosy patients.
Murlidhar Devidas “Baba” Amte was born in an affluent Deshastha Brahmin family on 26 December 1914 in the city of Hinganghat in Maharashtra. His father, Devidas Amte, was. a colonial government officer working for the district administration and revenue collection departments.
Prakash Amte, the son of Baba Amte studied MBBS at Government Medical College (GMC), Nagpur, and he met his wife Mandakini during their post-graduation studies at Government Medical College (GMC), Nagpur.
Prakash and Mandakini joined Baba Amte and tried to eradicate the social fear and disbelief regarding leprosy, prevalent during the time.
The Lok Biradari Prakalp (LBP) was started on 23rd December 1973 by Baba Amte for the integrated development of the primitive tribe ‘Madia-Gonds’ in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.
The ‘Madia-Gond’ tribe lives in remote parts of the district, deep in the forests. Apart from the dangers of living in the wild, where animal attacks are very common, malaria and cholera epidemics were also widely occurring. The Madia-Gonds did not have access to even the basic medical facilities. Their situation was thus very alarming.
Dr. Prakash Amte and his wife Dr. Mandakini Amte started working among the Madias. Slowly the Madias started coming to them for their treatment. They provided them with free healthcare assistance and basic education for their children. Since then the Lok Biradari Prakalp has come a long way.
Today, with a multi-speciality hospital, a hostel school which has created engineers and doctors and livelihood opportunities for the tribes, LBP has successfully brought the Madia-Gonds into the mainstream.
