Mandakini and Prakash Amte have been conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, for serving the medical, education and livelihood needs of remote tribal communities in Maharashtra for over 30 years.
Prakash Amte and his wife Mandakini, both doctors, have been awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership 2008. The Magsaysay Award, given annually by the government of the Philippines , is considered to be the Asian Nobel.
The Amtes have been working among the Madia Gond tribals in Bhamragarh, in Maharashtra s Gadchiroli district, since the 1970s. According to the award citation, they were being honoured for their work in enhancing the capacity of the Madia Gonds to adapt positively in todays India , through healing and teaching and other compassionate interventions.
Prakash Amte grew up in Anandvan, an ashram and rehabilitation centre for people with leprosy started by his father, the late Baba Amte. In 1974, when Baba Amte wanted to start a new project for the Gonds, Prakash and Mandakini gave up their urban medical practice and moved to the remote tribal area with him.
