| Dr Pramod Karan Sethi |
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| Dr P K Sethi |
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| Jaipur feet |
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The claims and counterclaims led many to believe every thing about the Jaipur foot was simple, that a limb could be made and fitted in under an hour and using only locally available materials. The Jaipur Foot gained a mythical reputation (among some development NGOs too) based on the rather romantic notion that it was ‘low’ technology, requiring very few skills to make and fit. Most of this is unfounded except perhaps the claim about the cost, especially when compared to that of commercially produced prosthetic feet. Much about the Jaipur foot is still mired in controversy, about its origin and invention. Unfortunately it has also perpetuated the belief that whatever is called appropriate technology is ‘simple’, very easy to do and has no scientific base.
Since the banning of landmines became a global one, there have been many extraordinary claims by journalists and others that the Jaipur foot has helped ‘millions’ of landmine victims. A realistic estimate of the total number of people fitted with the Jaipur foot technology since its invention is in the hundreds of thousands rather than in millions. The number of amputees who use the Jaipur foot as a result of landmine injury is quite small.
One of the first to use the Jaipur foot technology outside of India is a charitable organisation in Sri Lanka, the Colombo Friends in Need Society - many of whose beneficiaries are war disabled. The Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation started the Kean Khleang rehabilitation centre near Phnom Penh in 1993 using the Jaipur foot. The SMS hospital and BMVSS in Jaipur continue to be the largest producers of the Jaipur foot. The BMVSS also supports several limb camps in India and other countries such as Afghanistan andPakistan.
The Rotary movement in the UK has supported many Indian charities and local Rotary clubs by actively promoting limb camps using the Jaipur foot in India and elsewhere in Asia, Africa and in Central America – some of these countries could be said to have war disabled people.
DDP (formerly know as the Jaipur Limb Campaign) set up a centre in Mozambique in 1997 with the Mozambique Red Cross Society. A permanent and sustainable resource, the Centro Ortopedico Jaipur (COJ) in Gaza Province is catering rehabilitation services for landmine survivors and other disabled people in southern Mozambique. DDP also supported the setting up of BRAC’s Limb and Brace Centre in Dhaka, Bangladesh. This centre is a vital addition to the country’s rehabilitation services. Both of these continue to sue the Jaipur foot. DDP has also supported Indian NGOs such as the Gandhigram Trust (who had a Jaipur foot production unit and rehab workshop) and Mobility India to promote the foot widely with rural grassroot partners in south and north east of India. As part of the establishment of Mobility India’s research, rehabilitation and training centre a Jaipur foot production unit was set up to provide feet for rural workshops, to COJ, Mozambique and for their prosthetic training course. <<back more>> |
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