Vice President Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated a Jaipur Foot Artificial Limb camp at the Indian Embassy at Hanoi, Vietnam, on Saturday. At the event, Naidu said the Jaipur Foot was one of the great scientific innovations of India that had transformed numerous lives across the world. Indeed, this lightweight, low-cost prosthetic has been a very successful diplomatic outreach tool to around 30 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America.
The Jaipur Foot was designed by Jaipur-based sculptor Ram Charan Sharma under the guidance of orthopaedic surgeon P.K. Sethi in 1968. In 1975, D.R. Mehta set up the Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) to provide the Jaipur Foot to the poor at no cost. In 2009, Time Magazine rated the Jaipur Knee, developed by Stanford University and BMVSS, as one of the world's 50 greatest inventions.
In 2002, an updated version of the Jaipur Foot prosthetic was made available when the Indian Space Research Organisation transferred the updated version, made of polyurethane, for public use via the BMVSS. The prosthesis is so light, it weighs only 500g and costs barely Rs 2,000. While the Jaipur Foot, per se, is a below-knee prosthesis, the organisation provides other orthopaedic aids such as the Stanford-Jaipur Knee, calipers that help people with motor disabilities and artificial arms.
In the developing world, and especially in war-torn countries where land mines are everyday risks, the Jaipur Foot has brought mobility and smiles for many victims.
While in many countries, the BMVSS has done fitment camps, in several others, it has trained locals to make the prosthesis themselves. One such centre is in Kabul, Afghanistan, which this correspondent visited in 2017. Run by the National Disability Institute, the centre has technicians who come for training to Jaipur. The centre sees a steady stream of amputees all day, and the technicians are barely able to cope up with the humongous demand.
The procedure is simple. On the amputee's first visit, the technicians take the measurements. The very next day, the prosthesis is ready, the amputee can actually strap it one right there and walk away. Fazlullah Mohammadi, who runs the centre, had told THE WEEK that by one estimate, there is a requirement for 34,000 new amputees every year. The Jaipur Foot, easy and affordable, is viewed as one of the best gifts India has given the war-torn country.
Unlike Western prostheses, which have to be worn with a shoe, the Jaipur Foot can be used barefoot, and is thus more in sync with the needs of developing nations, specially rural swathes, where people prefer being barefoot.
In Sri Lanka, which is another big beneficiary, there have been accomplishments of people climbing up to Adam's Peak with the prosthesis. The Philippines has two permanent centres, and even distant Colombia has one. Last year, India reached out to 500 victims, bringing smiles in bleak times. Indeed, with around 1.75 million beneficiaries around the world, the Jaipur Foot is said to be the most widely used prosthetic in the world.