Mandakini amte biography

Indian medical doctor and social worker

"Dr. Prakash Baba Amte" redirects here. For the Indian film, see Dr. Prakash Baba Amte – The Real Hero.

Prakash Baba Amte is a social worker from Maharashtra, India. Amte and his wife, Mandakini Amte, were awarded the Magsaysay Award for 'Community Leadership' in 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. In November he was awarded with the ICMR Lifetime Achievement Award by Bill Gates.

Early life

Prakash Amte is the second son of Magsaysay awardee Baba Amte. He obtained a medical degree from 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 helped her father and others overcome the taboo and fear of leprosy.

Lok Biradari Prakalp

In , Amte moved to Hemalkasa to start the Lok Biradari Prakalp, a project for the development of tribal people, most of whom were the Madia Gond in the forests of Gadchiroli district. He lived and worked there for almost twenty years performing emergency surgical procedures without electricity. The project transformed into a hospital, Lok Biradari Prakalp Davakhana, a residential school, Lok Biradari PrakalpAshram Shala, and an orphanage for injured wild animals, the Amte's Animal Park. The project provides health care to about 40, individuals annually. The Lok Biradari PrakalpAshram School has over students, residents and day scholars. Work of Amte's for Gond tribals and their philanthropic work in the form of the Lok Biradari Prakalp amongst the Madia Gonds in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra and the neighbouring states of Andhra Pr

Dr Mandakini Amte holds and MBBS degree from Nagpur University. She serves as the Medical officer for Lokbiradari Prakalp, Hemalkasa of Maharogi Samiti, Warora, chain of Seven Tribal Projects devoted to the cause of Madia Gond Tribal of Dandakaranya Forest on the Borders of Andhra, Chhattisgad and Maharashtra states.

The LBP project is located in Hemalkasa near Bhamragad, in the Gadchiroli district in the state of Maharashtra, which is part of the Dandakarayna forest reserve; a lush green forest with a very low population density. The area is inhabited by the Madia Gond tribals. It is also physically separated from &#;civilization&#;, and consequently is not benefiting from the development money spent by the government. Dr Mandakini Amte along with her husband Dr Prakash Amte are rimming the project since , forfeiting the opportunity of lucrative medical practice in urban areas. Under the project a hospital, a school, vocational traning centre is run. Through the LBP project the life saving irrigation techniques, diversity in crop farming, agricultural techniques were taught to local tribal population, which has led to the upliftment of the tribal population.

Over the years Dr Mandakini Amte has had to his credit several awards and accolades. She was awarded  Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in , Sheikh Hamdan International Award for Volunteers in Humanitarian Medical Services, Dubai and several more. A postal stamp was issued by The state of Monaco to honour Dr Prakash and Dr Mandakini Amte in

Indian doctor and social worker

Mandakini Amte popularly known as Manda Amte is a medical doctor and social worker from Maharashtra, India. She along with her husband, Prakash Amte were awarded the Magsaysay Award for 'Community Leadership' in for their philanthropic work in the form of the Lok Biradari Prakalp amongst the Madia Gonds in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra and the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. She is the daughter-in-law of Baba Amte.

Early life, education and career

Amte was born as Mandakini Deshpande. She had completed her MBBS from Nagpur and later decided to do her post-graduation in Anesthesia in Government Medical College(GMC),Nagpur. Prakash, her future husband, was a surgeon and that's how they met. They worked together in the same operation theatre.

Her father was opposed to her marriage with Prakash Amte as he feared that it meant she would have to live among lepers, which was a taboo then.

Magsaysay award

Amte & her husband were jointly awarded the Magsaysay Award for community leadership in , her citation reads as follows:

Commemorative stamp

The Principality of Monaco brought out a postage stamp in honour of the life and work of Prakash Mandakini in - just as they had done for Albert Schweitzer in This was only the second time that the Kingdom of Monaco brought out a stamp to honour a foreigner for their humanitarian work.

A French cou

Famous philanthropist and animal welfare activist Dr Prakash & Mandakini Amte’s visit to UK created much hype during his two of the many events carried across UK. Hemalkasa Health Foundation UK members Rahul Karurkar, Siddharth Mukne, Rahul Chimbalkar, Ashok Rokade, Mohini Kelkar & Nikhil Deshpande organised the events across UK. The London event held at Nehru centre on 20th Sept was packed house despite being a festival season. It was for the first time in the history of High Commission of India allowed Nehru centre to open on Sunday especially for this event.

Dr Prakash inaugurated website of Hemalkasa Health Foundation UK, a charity trust to receive help from UK for Lokabiradari Prakalpa at Hemalkasa. Audience was spellbound listening Dr Amte’s experiences during his 43 yrs of work for tribals and orphaned animals. Dr Amte’s Autobiography Pathways to Light was auctioned at Slough event and a single copy was sold for pounds equivalent to more than one lac rupees.

The second copy was sold at £ There is no known record of any marathi book getting such a huge price in the history. Therefore it was widely acknowledged as a record. Slough Mitra Mandal helped arrange Slough event. Many people are still donating generously. A digital x-ray machine was also sponsored for Hemalkasa hospital.