Gajanan Jagannath Mane

Gajanan Jagannath Mane is a former sailor who has spent more than three decades caring for people affected by leprosy and their families near Mumbai. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of social work, from Maharashtra ^[1].

From the Navy

Mane was born on 14 May 1949 ^[2]. Moved by the sacrifices of soldiers in the war with China, he joined the Indian Navy at 16, and he received the Sangram Medal for serving in the 1971 war with Pakistan ^[2].

A colony in Kalyan

In 1991 he began working at the Kushtha Seva Sanstha in Hanuman Nagar, Kalyan, a colony of more than 800 people once known as a settlement for leprosy patients ^[2]. He set up a dispensary in the colony, linked to the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation and the state health services, where more than 500 patients completed their treatment, and the spread of the disease in the area was brought under control ^[2].

Work and schooling

Because people affected by leprosy often struggle to find jobs, Mane started livelihood projects in the colony, including candle making, chalk making and a dairy farm ^[2]. Women are trained in tailoring and given sewing machines, and residents have found jobs with the municipal corporation and private firms ^[2]. Children from the colony are supported through school and college up to graduation, partly with donations from a temple built in the colony in 2000 ^[2].

The dairy project won first prize from Japan’s Sasakawa Leprosy Foundation in 2011 ^[2]. Mane received the Maharashtra government’s Gunwant Kamgar Puraskar in 1993 and its Samaj Utthan Puraskar in 2018 ^[2].