(August 2, 2008) More than three decades after Baba Amte won the Magsaysay Award
for public service, his son Prakash Amte was on Thursday chosen along with his wife
Mandakini for the prestigious prize, called the Asian Nobel Prize, in the category
of community leadership. The Ramon Magsaysay Award was established in April 1957 by
the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City. With the concurrence
of the Philippine government, the prize was created to commemorate Ramon Magsaysay,
the late president of the Philippines, and to perpetuate his example of integrity
in government, courageous service to the people, and pragmatic idealism within a democratic
society. When news that he and his wife have been chosen for the award reached him,
Prakash was doing what he is best at — rescuing animals: releasing a 8-ft-long python
in the jungle. It was 35 years ago, following in the footsteps of his father that
Prakash had set up the first hospital for the Madia Gond tribals living in deplorable
conditions in the forests of Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra and nearby Bastar
region, now part of Chhattisgarh. Equipped with a medical degree, he took up his father’s
offer to serve the tribals. Baba Amte had won the award in 1975. The doctor couple
were awarded for “enhancing the capacity of Madia Gonds to adapt positively in today’s
India, through healing and teaching and other compassionate interventions’’, the Ramon
Magsaysay Award Foundation said in Manila.