With the passing Baba Amte, India has lost one of its most respected and loved social activists. A follower of Mahatma Gandhi, Amte gave up a comfortable life and a lucrative career to join the freedom struggle. He dedicated his life to public service and worked among leprosy patients. He did much to dispel social prejudice against victims of leprosy and enabled them to live a life of dignity. He founded the Maharogi Sewa Samiti at Anandwan, a rehabilitation centre for the leprosy-affected and physically challenged in Maharashtra.

What started as a small centre housing six leprosy patients is today a township with over 3,000 residents. Amte was also an environmental activist who opposed the construction of big dams. Thanks to his intervention tribals who were displaced by the Bhopalpatnam and Icchampalli dams in 1984 were rehabilitated. He was subsequently drawn by the agitation against the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Project on the River Narmada. He went to the frontlines and lived among the dam oustees to wage a battle on their behalf. He threatened to take jal samadhi i.e. allow the waters of the Narmada to swallow him if the government allowed the submerging of the land of tribals. It was Amte who provided the Narmada Bachao Andolan with the inspiration to fight for the rights of the displaced. Angry with the state for the treatment it meted out to those displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Project, Amte returned his Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan.

Anandwan was barren rock when Amte began work there in 1951. His assets when he started off included a capital of Rs 14, a lame cow, his family and six leprosy patients. Still he didn’t shrink away from attempting to do what seemed impossible. Today Anandwan is a self-sufficient, bustling township set amidst verdant fields. If decades ago, people in the surrounding villages shunned leprosy patients and refused to give them water, today they call them to install their water pumps and wells. This was possible because of Amte’s stature and leadership.

Amte will be remembered for his uncompromising commitment to the empowerment of the most excluded sections of our society. He did his work without fanfare and far away from the media spotlight. Amte is no more but the solid work he did will continue to inspire generations to come. His life story is a reminder that we can bring social change if only we set our minds to it.