[4] Murlidhar Devidas "Baba" Amte was born in an affluent Deshastha Brahmin family[5][4] on 26 December 1914 in the city of Hinganghat in Maharashtra.

[7][8][9] His wife, Sadhanatai Amte, explains that he came to be known as Baba not because "he was regarded as a saint or a holy person, but because his parents addressed him by that name.

[4] As the eldest son of a wealthy land owner, he had an idyllic childhood, filled with hunting and sports.

[3] Amte, who never feared for anything till that incident and who fought one time with British men to save the honour of an Indian lady and was also challenged by sweepers of Warora to clean the gutters, was quivered in fright on seeing plight of Tulshiram.

[4] For the rehabilitated and cured patients he arranged vocational training and small-scale manufacturing of handicrafts and got things crafted by them.

[4] The leprosy patients were provided with medical care and a life of dignity engaged in agriculture and various small and medium industries like handicrafts.

[3] In 1973, Amte founded the Lok Biradari Prakalp to work for the Madia Gond tribal people of Gadchiroli District.

[3] Amte devoted his life to many other social causes, most notably the Quit India movement and attempting to raise public awareness on the importance of ecological balance, wildlife preservation and the Narmada Bachao Andolan.

Prakash and his wife Mandakini run a school and a hospital at Hemalkasa village in the underprivileged district of Gadchiroli in Maharashtra among the Madia Gond tribe, as well as an orphanage for injured wild animals, including a lion and some leopards.

[17] Amte's elder son Vikas and his wife Bharati run the hospital at Anandwan and co-ordinate operations with satellite projects.

[4] He believed in Gandhi's concept of a self-sufficient village industry that empowers seemingly helpless people, and successfully brought his ideas into practice at Anandwan.

[3] In her 2015 book Strangers Drowning, Larissa MacFarquhar profiled Amte as one of the extremely altruistic people she classifies as "do-gooders".