Versatile and inexpensive, Jaipur Foot prosthesis is transforming lives

"Mornings can be depressing here," says Devendra Raj Mehta as dusk falls on the tree-lined grounds outside his Jaipur office. "Many people arrive with nothing, unable to walk. But by evening, everything is very different." Located a few kilometres from the centre of the Rajasthani capital, the Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) is internationally renowned for its work in the field of amputee care. Most notable is the organisation's pioneering of the Jaipur Foot - a durable, lifelike and inexpensive prosthesis that has already changed more than 400,000 lives.

"That is only the number of people around the world who have been fitted with Jaipur limbs," Mehta explains. "As you will see, we do more than just that.

"We also have centres in other Indian cities, such as Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, and we take our work to places where it is needed overseas ... In total we have helped approximately 1.25 million people in 25 nations - including Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia."

Watching Mehta, the 74-year-old founder and chief patron of the BMVSS as he fields calls, dictates letters and answers emails, the operation's reach quickly becomes apparent. On his agenda today are invitations to run clinics in Chad, Mongolia and Cameroon, and a request for his presence at an awards ceremony in Helsinki.

Taking a brief break from this correspondence, Mehta points to a framed picture on the window ledge: "That is from Time magazine," he says. "The Jaipur Knee [a fully jointed plastic prosthesis developed by the BMVSS] was named one of the top 50 inventions of 2009." He then runs through a list of notable sponsors and partner organisations, including national and local government departments, the Indian Space Research Organisation and Michigan Institute of Technology. Further funding for the BMVSS comes from private individuals and public figures, such as Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the United Arab Emirates Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, who provided backing for a recent limb-replacement programme in Pakistan.

Looking at today's high-profile connections, it is easy to forget that the Jaipur Foot began as the handiwork of a local craftsman. Back in 1968, Ram Chandra Sharma, also affectionately known as Masterji, was employed as an occupational therapist by the Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur. During this time, he found himself frustrated by the expensive and impractical foreign-made prostheses he saw being fitted to amputees.

Masterji was determined to come up with a better alternative. Accordingly, he set himself a number of objectives. Firstly, his invention would be distributed free of charge, and thus needed to be made from cheap, easily obtainable materials. Secondly, it should be strong and flexible enough to withstand the rigours of manual labour. Thirdly, it would be culturally appropriate for its users: able to be worn with or without shoes for visits to temple or mosque, and capable of the full range of motions required by daily prayer.

Like every great innovation, Masterji's solution was simple and elegant. Instead of using costly alloys and polymers, he opted for a core of high-density foam rubber and wood, wrapped in vulcanised rubber. Pressed in a metal mould and heated, these components bound together and took on a shape uncannily close to that of a real human foot. This was then attached to a sturdy wooden leg.

In terms of form and function it was an unqualified success - so much so that it was fully endorsed by Masterji's employers and further research and development would involve a number of doctors from the hospital. Inevitably, word of this work spread among amputees in Rajasthan and beyond. However, for various reasons, only a very modest number of fittings (no more than 50) were carried out in seven years from 1968.