Dr. Prakash and Dr. Mandakini Amte are working in Hemelkasa, district Chandrapur for last 35 years. Hemalkasa is in Naxalite area where no policeman dare to work. 35 years before Late Baba Amte- founder of Maharogi Sewa Samiti took his two sons Vikas and Prakash to Bhamaragad which was deep inside the forest for picnic. Both of them watched the triabals- Madia Gond. Their cultured and sensitive souls felt the ignorance and poverty among those people. Those triabals were far away from the rest of the world...lack of daily needs.. lack of doctors...everything. Dr. Prakash decided to work for them while Dr Vikas assured him to provide all the necessary things from Anandwan.
Those days there were no roads to go to Hemalkasa. One had to cross the rivers in between to go there. During rainy season the region got isolated from rest of the world. So they had to make provision for enough food and other things before monsoon. Baba and Dr Vikas and their co-workers provides every little necessary things to them. In spite of all this Dr. Prakash. Dr Mandakini and their co-workers has to face so many hardships... It took six months to Dr. Prakash to know about the the birth of his first child..
The working conditions were little more strange than all this.. The tribals there were in fear of the persons wearing clothes! They did not ready to take treatment from a doctor wearing full shirt and trousers.. So Dr. Prakash started wearing banian and shorts only. After so many efforts people trusted the couple. Dr. Prakash very politely says,” It’s our need to treat them.. not theirs... so we have to make efforts..” Upto this date thousands of people around the area had taken treatment there...Open air surgery is one of the special scene there
Being the son of Baba Dr. Prakash recognised it soon that only to treat these people would not lessen their problems... So he started a school... but no child wants to even sit in the four walls of the school... teachers wandered in search of students.. gathered them...and now.. three of the students from that school are post graduate doctors!!! Some of them are teachers ... some students including girls wants to become agriculture officer to teach their community about modern farming!! They are ready to touch new horizons..
Dr. Prakash is best friends of wild animals there... He started an animal orphanage there.. He doesn’t like to call it as ‘orphange’as those animals are as if his family members.. he loves them and they also love him immensly. Dr. Prakash is a man of few words.. he and his animals know only the language of heart...
No wonder world has recognised the value of his work. He says very humbly,”because of this award it would be easier to put forth the problems of the triabals here in front of the world..”