D. K. Khaparde (13 May 1939,

Nagpur Nagpur (; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Nāgapura'') is the second capital and third-largest city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is called the heart of India because of its central geographical location. It is the largest and most populated city i ...

, – 29 February 2000,

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

) was an Indian activist and a founder of the precursor to

BAMCEF Waman Meshram The All India Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation, abbreviated as BAMCEF, is an organisation for employees of oppressed communities that was established in 1971 by Kanshi Ram, D. K. Khaparde, and Dinabhana. ...

in 1971 and later the president of BAMCEF. A

Mahar Mahar is one of the Indian caste found largely in the state of Maharashtra and neighbouring areas. Most of the Mahar community followed B. R. Ambedkar in converting to Buddhism in the middle of the 20th century. As of 2017 the Mahar caste w ...

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, after completion of his

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

from Institute of Science at Nagpur, Khaparde joined the Defence Establishment of

. In Pune, he met

Kanshi Ram Kanshi Ram (15 March 1934 – 9 October 2006), also known as Bahujan Nayak or Manyavar, Sahab Kanshiram was an Indian politician and social reformer who worked for the upliftment and political mobilisation of the Bahujans, the backward or lowe ...

, whom he enlightened about the movement of

Ambedkarism Ambedkarism is called as the teaching, ideology or philosophy of B.R. Ambedkar, an Indian economist, barrister, social reformer, and the first of Minister of Law and Justice in the first cabinet of Jawaharlal Nehru. Ambedkarism includes specia ...

, philosophy of

B. R. Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Bhīmrāo Rāmjī Āmbēḍkar; 14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who chaired the committee that drafted the Constitution of India based on t ...

. The crises on the issue of Jayanti celebration of

in the Defence establishment galvanised the followers of Ambedkar. They decided to form a nationwide organisation to spread the movement of Phule-Ambedkar and formed BAMCEF on 6 December 1978. Kanshi Ram left him in 1985 and therefore he had registered BAMCEF in 1987 in consultation with other colleagues. He resigned from the service and dedicated completely for 13 years and established BAMCEF offices in 18 states of India]to spread Phule-Ambedkar movement. It is said that Kanshi Ram wanted to make BAMCEF enter into the political sphere but Khaparde wanted it to remain a social organization hence there were conflicts.

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Further reading