People of Value

Dr PK Sethi

Kashmir; across border terrorism, cricket…. India and Pakistan have plenty to quarrel about. But even in these bitter and untrusting times, a delegation from Jaipur earned the admiration and gratitude of hundreds in Islamabad and Karachi last month. About 800 Pakistanis who has lost their legs to accident, frostbite of disease were fitted with the Jaipur Foot.

Over 3,000 landmine victims in Afghanistan too have been fitted with artificial legs in the past five years. Back in 2002, when word first spread in the war0ravagd country that the Jaipur Foot was on its way, amputees on crutches almost laid siege to the Indian embassy in Kabul.

“For me, no satisfaction in greater than seeing someone walk the help of Jaipur Foot again,” says Ram Chandra Sharma (87), who originally conceived the foot. Dressed in all white, Sharma looks like a monk. But age has failed to gnaw at his commitment to the cause. Even now he works regularly from a sparse room at the Mahaveer Viklank Sahatya Samiti office (MVSS), the NGO that has helped spread the good deed. About 8 lakh people have benefited from the invitation. Sharma was born in a family of craftsmen in Jaipur. He studied only till Class IV but was a master at stone carving, engraving and dye making.

He worked in Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital as a craft instructor for disabled patients where he met Dr PK Sethi, an orthopaedic surgeon. At SMS, Sharma saw patients struggling with heavy artificial legs. “They didn’t even look like legs. A man or a w2omen should be able to walk even in mud with artificial legs. I wanted to make something like that. That’s what the Jaipur Foot does. People can even climb a mountain, till the soil or drive a truck wearing it,” he says.

Sharma and Sethi worked in collaboration with willow, sponges and aluminium moulds but something seemed to be missing. Sharma’s big idea came when he saw a worker retreading a truck tyre with vulcanized rubber in a bicycle repair shop. Soon, the two came up with a foot made of vulcanized rubber hinged to wooden limb. The Jaipur Foot was born. Much later Sethi got a Magsaysay Award for his work The Jaipur Foot costs a mere Rs 1,179 (for the above–knee portion) and Rs 1,570 (for the below–knee part). Adjacent to Sharma’s office Pratap Singh (23) who lost his right leg after falling from a train, is trying out one at the workshop.

What does he think of the Jaipur Foot/ “With the earlier one, I could even ride a bicycle. For poor people like us, it is a boon.” Lakhs across India and else where in the world agree.

Source: Helping disabled get back on feet. The Times of India, Ahmedabad, 7 September 2007.

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Ahmedabad

As a boy, Kintu Shah would sit at the ‘chai laari‘ outside the Indian Institute of Management–Ahmedabad and watch visually impaired students from the Blind Peoples’ Association (BPA) by.

Today, as an event manager, this 31–year0old is taking personality development and grooming sessions for the blind. “At one such session they asked me what a party was,” says Shah and to give them a feel of one, he threw a party for them at the BPS, complete with smoke, sound and lights.

A number of young entrepreneurs like Shah are moving away from the donation kind of charity to realize dreams for the underprivileged. “I know I wanted to do something for them rather than just donating money to some organisation,” says Shah. People like Shah feel that the needy should be given time rather than money.

Mahendra Bajaj, 35, is a cloth merchant selling ready–to–stitch dress materials. “Being in a family business none of my brothers object to my being a part of a social cause. We have been sponsoring community marriages for girls from modest backgrounds.” Under one of their brand names, Bajaj has started a trust. “One rupee form every piece of cloths sold is diverted to this trust and is then donated to a school for slum children adb a hostel for the homeless,” says Bajaj.

“I regularly take part in the annual car rally organized by BPA where the route is given in Braille to a visually challenged navigator who is accompanied by a driver,” says Manoj Soni, 38, a well known jeweler of the city. Soni also collects discarded furniture on a particular day of the week to be given to BPA’s shop near Vastrapur lake.

Says Bajaj, “All our advertisement material brochures, banners and leaflets have some message printed on it, be it on thalassaemia awareness, saving the girl child or education.”

Source: New–age entrepreneurs with big hearts. The Times of India, Daily, Ahmedabad, 7 September 2007.

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