The Jaipur Foot is a remarkably effective, low-cost solution for those in need of a prosthetic leg. It is used particularly in India, but appears throughout the developing world. In its earliest form, the Jaipur Foot was specifically designed to cater to the crouching, cross-legged sitting, and barefoot walking that was observed in the developing countries. Since then, the design has expanded to suit the needs of thousands of amputees who cannot afford to pay the steep cost of, say, a prosthetic that one may be presented in America. Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti is the non-profit organization which brought this product to life. While the foot costs well under $100, the product is often given out for free. While these feet can be made locally, researchers are looking for a new approach that will allow the product to be reproduced faster and with less variability between models.
The beauty of this design is multi-faceted. Firstly, the foot looks incredibly similar to a human foot, which allows the user an extra sense of ease. Of course, this ease is centered around the true resemblance to a human foot, both in appearance and function. A user would have no issues riding a bike or walking on rough terrain. In one paper from the University of Michigan, the design allows a classical Indian dancer to remain a classical Indian dancer, or a pedicab driver to remain a pedicab driver. Given that both of these professions require a lot of mobility, it is impressive that such a cheap, succinct design could do its job so well. The BMVSS website notes that one can be fitted for this prosthetic in as little time as a couple hours.
BMVSS itself is an organization separate from any government or religion, dedicated to helping people with disabilities adjust and live life with maximum independence, for no cost. My absolute favorite aspect of this product is how much thought went into who the design was for. The MIT graduation student working on this project was praised by her mentor for not only having skills as a mechanical engineer, but for having the charisma to interact with those who need to product to figure out exactly what details are important, and what limitations exist due to cultural or environmental factors.
I wonder what complications could be caused if BMVSS begins to switch to a more mass-produced style of creation? Could the highly personalized fit which makes the Jaipur Foot so effective be compromised? I would love to dive deeper into this topic to find out why there is such a drastic cost difference between the Jaipur Foot and an American model. How could the high-functioning prosthetics of America be modified to cost much less? I hope it’s an engineering problem and not a greed problem.
Sources:
http://www.bus.umich.edu/FacultyResearch/ResearchCenters/ProgramsPartnerships/IT-Champions/JaipurFoot.pdf
http://jaipurfoot.org/what_we_do/prosthesis/below_knee_prosthesis.html
http://meche.mit.edu/people/katy-olesnavage