The Jaipur Foot

Jaipurfoot

The world's first sub-$40 artificial foot.

The Jaipur Foot was developed in India 1970 by orthopaedic surgeon Dr Pramod Karan Sethi and sculptor Ram Chandra. It provided an appropriate, low cost and aesthetic alternative to the Western limb designs otherwise available. The design has revolutionised the lives of thousands of amputees in the developing world.

Bhagwan Mahavir Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS), the world's largest charitable organization offers artificial limbs free of charge to those in need. With Mr. D. R. Mehta as the founder, the organization is well known for the development of the "Jaipur foot," the world's first sub-$40 artificial foot, an inexpensive and durable prosthetic. Though many of the recipients of these limbs were originally injured by land mines, Mehta was inspired to found the agency after his own serious car accident.

The modified Jaipur foot has the rubber and wooden ankle block substituted by the more durable Poly-Urethane micro cellular foams are lighter, and could be produced in large numbers in minimum time with improved quality, providing added comfort, gait and durability for the amputees.

PU foot prostheses are bio-mechanically advantageous as far as comfort and injury prevention are concerned. Slip resistance of the PU foot is much higher than other materials. Moreover, slip resistance of the PU material studied over wet and oily surface is also found to be much higher in comparison to rubber and allied materials. Thus, amputees using PU foot prostheses can walk more safely on any type of surface. Besides, its abrasion resistance being higher, PU foot also lasts longer. PU foam foot moulded with cosmetically attractive skin covers made of Poly-Urethanes are found to be more acceptable to amputees and a number of amputees were successfully fitted with such prostheses.


Dont stop Dancing

Famous for dancing on her 'Jaipur foot', Sudha Chandran is a famous Indian actress and classical dancer. Having lost a leg in an accident in 1982, her unshakable will to dance put her back on her feet after indomitable struggle. With the help of the Jaipur foot, which is essentially an artificial leg with which one is capable of working on a farm or even climbing a tree, combined with her persistent effort to perform again, she found herself back on stage. In 1984, a film called Mayuri was made based on her life story: her dancing, her severe accident, then the painful struggle to recovery followed by her triumph over her disability moving on gracefully with her life. This film was translated from Telegu into Hindi entitled Nache Mayuri as well as in English with the same title as her name, Sudha Chandran.


She has shown rare courage and determination to continue the art she loved, adored and practised to perfection, despite her disability and has been performing with no trace of the handicap, fate has imposed on her in all cruelty. In the living memory of the history of any dance system in the world, never has there been a case of a dancer retrieving her glory after having been disabled as did this "Wonder Girl" from Mumbai.


Today, she is an international celebrity, a symbol of hope for millions of disabled all over the world. Millions of students learn her life story in their text books.