Great Bhet presents the Extraordinary Gift to Humankind: Baba Adhav only on IBN-Lokmat

It happens rarely that one comes across a reformist who dedicated his life to social work at such an early age. Babasaheb Pandurang Adhav, mostly referred as “Baba”, is one such man who gave up his career as a doctor touched by the plight of the hamals (headloaders) in his vicinity. To know more about the dedicated social activist’s work and achievements, watch Great Bhet this Saturday, 1st October 2011 at 9.30 pm only on IBN-Lokmat.

Born and brought up in one of the oldest Peth areas in Pune, Baba grew up watching the daily hardships involved in the timber, grain and metal markets. His social reform work is based on the ideology of Gandhi, Jyotirao Phule and Ambedkar. Baba has worked towards eradicating the concept of Devdasi in Kolhapur district and the betterment of Phasi Pardhi tribe who once bore the stigma of being branded 'criminal' in British times. Hamal Panchayat, a trade union created by Baba and his followers, fought for the issue of denial of wage hikes by jaggery merchants to hamals. It proved to be successful in creating the Regulation of Employment and Welfare Act and works actively towards improving the living conditions of rickshaw drivers, rag pickers, handicapped people as well as farmers. It helped create a free secondary school, medical clinics, and a housing colony. It provides cheap nutritious meal to an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 workers every day in Pune. For himself, Baba made it a rule never to take a salary more than three times that of the lowest-paid employee. He owns no property.

Baba won the Times Of India Lifetime Contribution Award for years of selfless work to secure labor rights and social security for lakhs of people belonging to the worker class. He was nominated as the 2008 Man of the Year, by the Week magazine. He continues to work effectively towards the betterment of the Worker Class and his latest crusade includes getting the Unorganized Sector Workers' Social Security Bill, 2005, passed as an Act. This in turn will help provide healthcare, compensation for death or accident, maternity benefits, insurance and education for children.

To know more about this common man who made a huge impact with his uncommon contribution to the society, watch Great Bhet on Saturday, 1st October at 9:30 pm only on IBN-Lokmat.

You can also watch this episode on Sunday i.e. 2nd October 2011 @ 12:00 pm & 5:00 pm.

Hanmer MSL is a PR agency.

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This release was published on openPR.