Dow India recently launched a mobile camp to provide Jaipur foot prosthesis and mobility aids to the physically challenged in rural and remote areas in the state. The ‘Jaipur Foot on Wheels' initiative carried out in association with the NGO Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti travels across the state to identify the needy and provide them with artificial limbs free. Similar mobile camps to distribute prosthesis and mobility aids such as callipers, crutches and wheelchairs are being taken out in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The Jaipur leg is a rubber-based prosthetic leg for people with below-knee amputations, produced under the guidance of Dr. P.K. Sethi by Masterji Ram Chander in 1969 for victims of landmine explosions. Designed in, and named for Jaipur, India; the prosthetic leg was designed to be inexpensive, quick to fit and manufacture, and to be water-resistant. The Jaipur foot is fitted free of cost by Bhagwan Mahavir Viklang Sahyata Samiti (BMVSS), founded by Devendra Raj Mehta. It costs approximately Rs1500 (32 USD). Dow India supports the organization with polyurethane, which is used in the production of the prostheses. This new material increases the durability and the convenience of the leg. Dow India also supports BMVSS with financial assistance to carry on the work done by the non-government organization. The Samiti-Dow partnership has benefited an estimated 16,000 persons over three years. The beneficiaries include polio-affected, accident victims and diabetic foot amputees. Dow has contributed financial aid, technical innovation and volunteer support to the initiative to provide mobility to the physically challenged. Last year, Dow India extended Rs.1 crore for the program, said Kelly Fort, vice-president, Dow India Engineering Centre (IEC). In 1975 or earlier there were hardly one or two institutions in India, fitting artificial limbs and providing other aids and appliances. One of them was dedicated solely to the amputees from the armed forces and only its surplus capacity of a few hundred limbs was available for the civilians. Thus, there was an urgent need to augment the facilities for limb fitment by setting up of more institutions like BMVSS. Jaipur Foot provided an alternative. Jaipur Foot was developed in 1968. It was made of rubber of different types, wood etc, making it a multi-flex foot, closest to the human foot in functional terms. The socket of the Jaipur Limb was initially made of aluminum replacing the wood, making the limb comparatively lighter. Further, Jaipur Foot could be made easily and rapidly (in some cases in one day), using locally available materials and craftsmanship. Sudha Chandran, Indian actor and dancer who lost her limb in an accident in 1982, was fitted with the Jaipur foot and started dancing once again. Her journey is the theme of the Telugu film Mayuri (1984), remade into a 1986 Hindi film, Naache Mayuri, both the films starred Sudha in the lead role. Apart from making it available for the masses, it was also necessary that the Jaipur Foot technology should be subjected to continuous up-gradation by providing technical, financial and managerial support. For this a multi-disciplinary approach and combination of experts from different fields like orthopedics, prosthetics, social work and philanthropy was needed. Owing to BMVSS, taking up mass manufacturing with modern management techniques and financial support from the public coupled with a proper value system focused on the self respect in dignity of patients. Dow's IEC in Guindy has developed a polymer that has brought down the weight of the Jaipur foot significantly. The prosthesis version using polyurethane has brought down the weight by almost 50 per-cent and affords a higher degree of flexion. The breakage rate has also been brought down from 20 percent to 4 percent. “Trials are progressing to further bring down the breakage rate to 1 percent or thereabouts,” said Balaji Venkataraman, president of Dow India IEC. The newer versions of the Jaipur foot have a higher degree of ankle maneuverability than the Western prosthetics, said D.R. Mehta, founder of the Samiti. The mobile vans with an orthopaedician and technical staff will be equipped to deliver a prosthesis the same day, he said. The Samiti has sought clearance from the Sri Lankan government to hold Jaipur foot camps in Kandy and Jaffna to provide prosthesis to casualties. In Karachi, over 400 physically impaired people were fitted with special prostheses and calipers, developed by India's Jaipur Foot at a week-long camp at the Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS). An eight-member team from Jaipur Foot arrived in Karachi to provide their expertise and technology free of cost. The program is a project of Rotary Club of Karachi, Haswa (Healthcare and Social Welfare Association) and DUHS. Mehta said that the technology greatly enhanced the quality of life of the physically challenged people as it made very complicated movements easier. The raw material for fabrication was locally available at a cost of only Rs2,000 (43 USD). “The quality of the limbs is such that a person can walk comfortably, ride a bicycle, run, jump, dance and even climb a tree,” he said. For adults, the foot lasted for three to four years while for children it needed to be replaced as they grew up, he said, adding that there were about 16 centers of Jaipur Foot all over India where artificial limbs, foots and calipers were being provided free of cost. Dr. Mehta said that the Jaipur Foot team had been to 22 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America and was visiting Pakistan for the first time. Before arriving in Karachi, the team went to Islamabad where over 400 people were fitted with artificial limbs under the National Rural Support Program. Highlighting the significance of the camp, DUHS vice-chancellor Masood Hamid said that the type of flexibility present in Jaipur Foot was not available in Pakistan. He expressed his gratitude to the team for providing its expertise for free. India has a large population of limbless and polio afflicted persons according to the National Sample Survey Organization, (NSSO) the well-known scientific body under the Indian government, which undertook the sample survey of the disabled persons in the country. The number of persons suffering from locomotor disabilities is 1 percent of the total population, which means a staggering 10 million people in India are suffering from locomotor disabilities out of the total population of 1 billion. Fitment of artificial limbs and calipers, therefore has to be further augmented on a large-scale According to the article published in American Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics, every year 25000 new amputees gets added to this number, that means it requires an enormous effort to rehabilitate them all with the required aids.
