[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 26, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E245]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING THE LIFE OF MURLIDHAR DEVIDAS AMTE

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ROBERT E. ANDREWS

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 26, 2008

  Mr. ANDREWS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life of Mr. 
Murlidhar Devidas Amte, affectionately known as Baba Amte. Over 60 
years ago, Mr. Amte moved his wife and infant children to barren, 
desert land with the goal of creating a community for the most 
downtrodden people in India, leprosy patients. Today, Anandwan is a 
self-sustaining community of over 2,500 leprosy patients, orphans, and 
other social outcasts built on the belief that ``work builds, and 
charity destroys.'' This community builds their own homes, grows their 
own food, and practices recycling techniques beyond those of most 
communities in the world. Anandwan has a college to teach self-
sustaining, organic farming techniques, and also schools for the deaf 
and blind children of the greater community.
  As a successful lawyer during the independence movement in India, Mr. 
Amte was a staunch believer in Gandhian philosophy and chose to change 
his entire life to help uplift people that did not have the same luck 
at birth that he was bestowed.
  Beyond Anandwan, Mr. Amte worked with his two sons to build other 
communities for tribal people still living in the jungle without health 
care. He furthered his reach when he chose to become an activist for 
not only people, but the environment. With a degenerative spinal 
disease that eventually made him bedridden, he traveled to a site for a 
proposed dam, the Narmada Dam Project, which would destroy the land and 
force thousands of people from their homes. He camped out in a van on 
the site in protest of not only that dam but all dam projects in India.
  Mr. Amte has received numerous humanitarian and environmental awards 
in his lifetime including The United Nations Human Rights Prize (1988), 
The Templeton Prize (1990), The Gandhi Peace Prize (1999), Dr. Ambedkar 
International Award for Social Change (1999), and countless others.
  Baba Amte left this world on February 8, 2008, but his spirit will 
always live on through the thousands of lives he helped. I want to 
thank Baba Amte for all he has done for the people of Anandwan and the 
world.

                          ____________________