Anandwan literally, ''Forest of happiness'', located around 5 kilometers from

Warora Warora is a city and municipal council in Chandrapur district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. During the British Raj, the town was part of the Central Provinces and was a coal-mining center. The work place of famous social worker Baba A ...

Chandrapur district Chandrapur district (Marathi pronunciation: ͡ʃən̪d̪ɾəpuːɾ (earlier known as ''Chanda district'') is a district in the Nagpur Division in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Chandrapur was the largest district in India until the Gadchirol ...

in the state of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, is an

ashram An ashram (, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions, not including Buddhism. Etymology The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< leprosy Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease (HD), is a Chronic condition, long-term infection by the bacteria ''Mycobacterium leprae'' or ''Mycobacterium lepromatosis''. Infection can lead to damage of the Peripheral nervous system, nerves, respir ...

patients and the disabled from downtrodden sections of society. It was founded in 1949 by noted social activist

Baba Amte Murlidhar Devidas Amte (), popularly known as Baba Amte, (26 December 1914 – 9 February 2008) was an Indian social worker and social activist known particularly for his work for the rehabilitation and empowerment of people suffering from le ...

. The project is run by the organisation Maharogi Seva Samiti, and even being located one of the most backward districts of Central India -Chandrapur, has built livelihood capabilities of thousands of downtrodden people, persons with disabilities like leprosy, orthopedically handicapped, vision and hearing impaired and primitive tribal members since 1949. Two of its other projects are

Lok Biradari Prakalp Lok Biradari Prakalp (LBP) (Marathi; Brotherhood of People project) is a social project of the ''Maharogi Sewa Samiti'', Warora involving a hospital, a school and an animal orphanage. It was started on 23 December 1973, by the social worker B ...

and Somnath, a village for cured leprosy patients. Baba Amte developed Anandwan to be a self-contained ashram (which could be described as "a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

for the sick"). Today residents are self-sufficient in terms of basic subsistence. In addition the ashram has various home-based, small-scale industry units run by the residents that generate income to cover additional requirements. Baba Amte also shaped Anandwan as an environmentally aware community to practice energy utilization, waste recycling and minimizing use of natural resources that might otherwise lead to their depletion.The Miracle Worker Baba Amte - Collector's office, Chandrapur district
Anandwan today has two hospitals, a college, an orphanage, a school for the blind, a school for the deaf and a technical wing. Dr. Vikas Amte, Baba Amte's elder son, is the chief functionary at Anandwan. He undertook various experiments in Anandwan regarding rehabilitation which have been mentioned in a book titled 'Anandwan Prayogwan'.

Books

A book titled 'Anandwan Prayogwan' has been written by Dr. Vikas Amte which describes different experiments undertaken at Anadwan.

Additional Works

In later years the samiti managing Anandwan, also added two projects under the Lok Biradari Prakalp at Somnath in Mul tehsil of Chandrapur district in 1967 and at Hemalkasa,which is looked after by Prakash and Mandakini Amte, both doctors, and their sons Digant and Aniket and their wives Anagha and Sameeksha. in Bhamragad tehsil of Gadchiroli district in 1973.

References

External links

Report on Anandwan
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130222062039/http://www.bharari.net/report-on-anandwan/ , date=22 February 2013
Maharogi Sewa Samiti: Anandwan

Ashrams 1951 establishments in Bombay State Religious organizations established in 1951 Chandrapur district Leper hospitals Health charities in India

Books

Additional Works

See also

Further reading

References

External links