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LENDING A LEG The legendary Jaipur Foot has no patent, but thousands of people with lost limbs have benefited from a trust's free-of-cost limbs, reports Kenneth Lobo In Mumbai, where only the air and atmosphere is free, where the thought of offering help to someone who's fallen on the road has to be processed before it's implemented, the Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti that offers artificial limbs for free to anyone who comes knocking, is a pleasant surprise. Narayan Vyas, the chief co-ordinator of the society that has 14 centres across the country says that their motto is 'Atithi devo bhavo'. "As soon as you walk into our premises, you get whatever you want," he says. The society was set up in 1975 to benefit handicapped persons by D R Mehta, an IAS officer, who decided to invest his management and leadership skills in society. While the Jaipur Foot was developed in 1968, the impact on society was visible in next few years (50 limbs in the first seven years) before the society was born, and 10,000 in the next seven years. Sher Singh Rathod, 40, who arrived at the Mumbai centre in 1993, trained under Ram Chandra Sharma (a sculptor and artist who switched professions) in Jaipur says that the training is not corporate. "The setting is more like a gurukul where the process of learning is endless. Now in his nineties, he's still a stickler for details. But at the end of work, he's like a friend," says Rathod. He himself lost his leg in a train accident and says that the majority of the patients suffer the same fate. The overcrowded metropolis ensures that every day at least 15 amputees walk into the premises. One of the most difficult casts that demanded his ingenuity was a missing ankle-down foot. "We had to leave a gap between the artificial foot and the bone, and then screw in bolts," he says. Ninety-five per cent of the visitors comprise the poor and destitute but even the moneyed are tempted by the benevolence. The cost of a prosthetic fitting in a private hospital is never less than 10 - 15,000 rupees. "We don't cast judgements on background and motive," says Vyas, adding that sometimes, people take advantage of the service and sell the limbs outside at a handsome price. What separates the Jaipur Foot centre from similar assistance in other parts of the city is the immediate relief. There are no comeback-tomorrow rejoinders or 'we'll see what we can do' dialogue; a tremendous boon for the poverty stricken, where every trip involves precious money. "Imagine the feeling where you walk in on crutches and leave without them. There's apprehension in the air when patients stream in and boundless joy when they walk out," says Vyas. Every month, besides artificial limbs, wheel chairs, socks and shoes and grain for the hungry are also distributed. The society constantly releases funds for research and the latest in its assembly line of invention is a foot with a spring action, which allows a person with a gap in the thigh to move forward without effort. "A German firm was here to find out how we run the organisation, our methods. I said, 'Send us 300 people, we'll fit them with limbs, that's how we work'," says Vyas, who recently led a camp into an Adivasi region. Camps are regular features of the Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti - soldiers who lost their feet during the Kargil war to children in Uganda - and they include mobile on-the-spot routines. The greatest gift that the Jaipur Foot grants its benefactors is mobility and autonomy. Samir Zaveri who also lost his legs in a train accident was directed here in 1989 by his doctor at J J Hospital. "They function perfectly for at least four or five years. Modifications and tweaking is also taken care of," he says. Rathod himself is an amputee and generating employment is another of the centres' credits. Although not as big in scale as the Rajasthan unit, where street beggars to middle-class housewives are trained to make new feet, the Mumbai branch has spurred several spin-offs. "People use the Jaipur Foot's name and reputation quite freely," says Vyas and most of the imitators, ironically, have trained under Rathod. But he bears no ill-feeling. "What you sow, you reap," he says. Sher Singh Rathod (centre), who trains people to make artifical limbs is flanked by Sameer Zaveri (left), who lost his legs in 1989, and his nephew URL : http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=TU1JUi8yMDA2LzEwLzMxI0FyMDExMDA=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom |
| Also see : Public Health, HIV / AIDS, HIV / AIDS : News Articles, Dementia & Alzheimer's, Visually Challenged, Community Health Insurance |
