By IANS,
Nagpur : Prakash and Mandakini Amte, the physician couple who have been running a hospital, a school and development centre in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district since 1974, have been given this year’s Magsaysay award for community leadership. Prakash is the son of Baba Amte, a Magsaysay award winner himself.
The couple, based in Hemalkasa, have enhanced “the capacity of the Madia Gonds to adapt positively in today’s India, through healing and teaching and other compassionate interventions”, the citation read.
The award committee said in its citation: “When Prakash Amte and Mandakini Amte arrived in the midst of the Madia Gonds (in the remote eastern part of Maharashtra) 34 years ago, the region had no modern services. Government officials considered it wild and served there only reluctantly. By contrast, the Amtes, medical doctors, came by choice.
“Prakash Amte grew up in Anandwan, an ashram and rehabilitation centre for lepers in Maharashtra founded by his father, the renowned Gandhian humanitarian Murlidhar Devidas Amte, or Baba Amte.”