Patients lined up for artificial limbs fitting, Jaipur

Patients waiting for their turn for fitting artificial limb at the BMVSS in Jaipur, India.

The manufacturing process of the foot. Each craftsperson makes 5 to 6 feet per day. They work a 6 day week and the majority of them are amputees or affected by polio themselves. Various rubber and wooden pieces are used to construct the foot before it is put into a die that gives it the realistic appearance.

Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) is the world's largest organisation serving the disabled. This NGO provides all its assistance, including artificial limbs, calipers and other aids and appliances totally free of charge.

BMVSS was registered as a society under the Rajasthan Societies Registration Act on March 29, 1975 (vide registration number 261/1974-75). It has its headquarters at Jaipur (India). It is a pan-Indian organisation having 22 branches, spanning Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir) to Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat) to Guwahati (Assam). Metropolitan cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Varanasi, Patna, etc also have limb fitment centres of BMVSS. Details can be found under the Locations section.

Since inception, BMVSS has rehabilitated more than 1.3 million amputees and polio patients by fitting / providing artificial limbs (Jaipur Foot variations), calipers, and other aids and appliances, mostly in India and also in 26 countries across the world.

Apart from providing the widest possible range of services for the disabled, BMVSS is also focused on research and development, and tries to fuse service with science.

BMVSS has forged agreements with Stanford University, USA; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA; the Indian Space Research Organisation; and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur, for research and development, Professors of other IITs, namely Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai, too are helping BMVSS. Further, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur; National Institute of Technology