The Hindu : National : Paulos Mar Gregarios Award for Baba Amte

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 28, 2005

National

National

Paulos Mar Gregarios Award for Baba Amte

NEW DELHI, FEB. 27. A man who left ``khakhi for khadi'' to further public cause today honoured a man who quit the court room to build a world of happiness and self-reliance for those with gaping wounds.

Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat — who had quit a police constable's job to join politics — conferred the Paulos Mar Gregarios Award 2005 on Dr. Muralidhar Devidas ``Baba'' Amte, an advocate-turned social activist who transformed the lives of leprosy patients and the disabled at his Anandvan in Maharashtra.

The Award instituted by the Sophia Society to promote peace, justice and wisdom — ideals for which Dr. Paulos Mar Gregarios, articulator of the Orthodox Faith across the world, lived and worked — was received on Baba Amte's behalf by his son, Dr. Vikas Amte, at a function in Vigyan Bhawan.

Regretting the fact that advancing age and illness had prevented the 90-year-old social crusader from attending the ceremony, Mr. Shekhawat described Baba Amte as ``a shining example" of Gandhian solutions to compelling problems, including poverty, ailments, peace and environment.

Impressed by his commitment to the welfare of leprosy patients, the disabled and the downtrodden, Mahatma Gandhi called him ``Abhay Sadhak'' (unflinching crusader) — something that needed to be emulated by the younger generations, Mr. Shekhawat said.

Stressing that the welfare of the marginalised and underprivileged was the foremost duty of the state, Mr. Shekhawat said commitment to the wellbeing of the ``have-nots'' was the ``fifth pillar of Indian democracy''.

Calling for a paradigm shift in the contemporary concept of globalisation, he said globalisation did not merely mean breaking of trade barriers, but implied a world family based on the ancient Indian philosophy of `Vasudaiva Kutumbakam.'

The focus of such a society needed to be centred on establishing an inter-faith dialogue between various communities with the larger motive of serving the poor and the deprived.

Replicate efforts

The Vice-President called upon the country to replicate Baba Amte's efforts in alleviating the sufferings of the leprosy patients.

Baba Amte's efforts for establishing an Anandvan to reduce the sufferings of leprosy patients made the ailment fall out of the bracket of communicable disease, he said. It should be replicated with AIDS patients, by integrating them with the mainstream society to mitigate their ``social pains.''— UNI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National

News Update

Stories in this Section