Video interview | Magsaysay Awardee Prakash Amte on being a doctor practicing in the remote tribal regions – Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh & Chhattisgarh

https://inktalks.com What does it take to be a doctor practicing in the remote tribal regions without easy access to proper medicine and technology? What does it take to run an orphanage for rescued animals which may have otherwise ended up as dinner for the local population? What does it take for a regular surgeon to perform cataract operation with just a book as a reference? And least of all, what does it take to be Baba Amte’s son? In this Q&A with INK Curator Lakshmi Pratury, Magsaysay awardee Prakash Amte answers these questions and more.

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ABOUT PRAKASH AMTE: Magsaysay Awardee Prakash Amte runs Lok Biradari Prakalp to provide community services to tribal people in rural Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The project has grown into a hospital, residential school and an orphanage for injured wild animals. He heads a rare informal court where adivasis (tribals) from far come out of love and trust that justice will be granted.

Source: Prakash Amte: What it takes to dine with a lion – YouTube
Address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sedcBFV1SAA&list=PLzdZd58fqqOxOCLc54dSP22ddbNP28xw2
Date Visited: Sat Dec 03 2016 22:24:25 GMT+0100 (CET)

Baba Amte: The inspiring gardener

“I am not a sadhubaba,” Baba Amte always made it a point to assert. The indomitable spirit behind the struggle towards a ‘total revolution’ is no more. An Ambdedkarite by philosophy and a Gandhian by his political actions, Baba devoted his life to antyodaya–uplift of the most oppressed. […]

Baba was a nickname from childhood, and Muralidhar Devidas Amte wore his religion lightly. He would often tell his followers and admirers that he was neither a saintly person nor a pretentious monk. He didn’t pray or plead, certainly not before any court of power. Baba was an advocate by profession till he began a path of advocacy. […]

Charity destroys, work builds“–that was Baba’s credo. His was a mission to motivate, rejuvenate and empower. He planted a seed each at Anandvan, a centre for leprosy patients, and at Hemalkas and Ashokvan, centres for tribals, that grew into trees, tall and rooted. Anyone who has visited these places would see in their working the very rare combination of a fantastic visionary and a great activist. […]

But Baba was no poet, and his vision was not utopic. Prosperity for him meant nurture of both human and natural resources. Nature for him was a companion, not a commodity or a tourist’s abode. He was a soldier of conscience in his own words.

Baba moved out of his ashram to violence-hit Punjab, the dam-hit Narmada valley and to communal riots-affected basti s in Mumbai. When he moved, he was not alone. Thousands of youth joined him on his Bharat Jodo movements from Kanyakumari to Kashmir in 1985 and Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh in 1988. The movements were his ways of inspiring people towards a casteless, secular and integrated India. They were also borne out of a deep-rooted belief in the essential unity of humankind. […]

We in India are often guilty of eulogizing people, but it can be said without doubt that Baba exemplified the humanitarian politics of Gandhiji.

Source: “The inspiring gardener” by Medha Padkar (DownToEarth, 15 March 2008)
URL: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/baba-amte-the-inspiring-gardener-4264
Date visited: 21 March 2021

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Learn more about Baba Amte and the Narmada valley on Safe search >>

See also

Baba Amte

Bastar

Bhil

Community facilities

Ecology and environment

Economy and development

Forest Rights Act (FRA) | Legal rights over forest land

Gadchiroli

Gandhian social movement

Health and nutrition | Recommendations by the Expert Committee

Narmada | Narmada Valley

People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) | RuralIndiaOnline.org

Seasons and festivals

States along the Narmada river’s course (source to Arabian Sea):
Madhya Pradesh | Maharashtra | Gujarat

Tribal identity

Worship and rituals