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Western India's
Bhagat Puran Singh, Baba Amte, passes away
WSN Network
 Nagpur:
Noted social worker and Magsaysay Award winner Murlidhar Devidas,
also known as Baba Amte, who devoted his entire life to the care and
rehabilitation of leprosy patients, passed away at about 4 am on
Saturday. He was 94.
Many in Punjab saw
Baba Amte as a sort of Bhagat Puran Singh though he was not so well
known in the state as in western India.
Baba Amte had been
ailing for some time and had recently been diagnosed with blood
cancer. He leaves behind two sons and two daughters.
He remained
unassuming throughout his life, and suitably the family declined a
state funeral. He was fondly called "Baba" out of reverence for his
work among the downtrodden and the leprosy patients, but probably
prompted by the fact that it was the name by which his parents
called him. Baba hailed from a family of upper-caste landowners, but
he showed his social activism from an early age. He used to have
meals with lower-caste families and play with their children without
hesitation.
He passed his law
exam, and even set up what would have been a very lucrative practice
in Wardha, but abandoned all plans and started to work among the
poor after he saw the appalling poverty among the families that
worked on the family’s estate in Chandrapur district. He also began
to work among the sweepers and carriers of night soil.
Much like Bhagat
Puran Singh ji, Baba had an experience in 1946 that would change the
very course of his life. He saw a man severely afflicted by leprosy
lying on the road in the blazing sun of the notorious Vidarbha
summer, writhing in agony. Baba shifted him into the shade, washed
him and looked after him for days. And thus began an unending
journey of service to leprosy-affected persons. Baba started working
for those struck by leprosy in Warora, and later set up Anandwan as
a home for them. He took a formal course for leprosy treatment.
Among the many awards that he has won is the Ramon Magsaysay Award
and the Padma Vibhushan.
13 February 2008
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