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Baba Amte
बाबा आमटे
The friend of the lepers — the man who made compassion a community
Years
1914 – 2008
Known as
Murlidhar Devidas Amte — 'Baba Amte'
Birthplace
Hinganghat, Maharashtra
Field
Social Reformers
“The leper is not a disease but a brother — and the brother must be given a home and a hand.”
— Baba Amte
The Story
Born in 1914 in Hinganghat, Murlidhar Amte was a lawyer of means and pleasure in his youth — until a meeting with a dying leper changed his life completely. He gave up his career and his wealth and devoted himself to the lepers, whom the society of the age treated as the untouchables of the untouchables.
In 1949 he founded Anandwan, 'the forest of joy', in the barren land of the Vidarbha region — a community where lepers and the disabled were not merely cared for but given work, craft, and dignity. Anandwan grew into a city of several thousand people, self-sufficient and self-respecting, and its model spread across the world.
He worked till the end of his long life — for the tribals, for the environment, for the poor — and died in 2008. He is honoured as one of the greatest servants of humanity of the modern age, a man who proved that compassion, organised and unceasing, can transform the world.
Core Ideas
Anandwan
The community of joy he built for the discarded.
The Leper's Friend
He gave the outcast a home and a dignity.
The Compassion
The organised compassion that transformed lives.
The Honours
The Magsaysay, the Padma Vibhushan, the Gandhi Peace Prize.
The Servant
A lifetime for the leper, the tribal, and the poor.
Why it matters today
Baba Amte is honoured as one of the greatest servants of humanity of the modern age — the man who built Anandwan and gave the lepers of the world a home and a dignity. His community serves thousands, his example has spread across the globe, and his name remains the greatest in the compassion of modern Bhārat.