Today is International Human Rights day commemmorating the adoption of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General
Assembly in 1948. Coming as it did after the excesses of World War II, it was a
great document comprehensively setting out the basics of liberal rights of the
individual for peaceful and just human existence. Article 25 (1) of the UDHR states - "Everyone has the right to a standard of living
adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including
food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the
right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability,
widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his
control". This is the only article that mentions that
those who are disabled too have the right to live a fulfilling life. This is
one area in which in India a lot remains to be done. There are some provisions
from the Government to aid disabled people but they are minimal and in most
cases inadequate. Therefore, NGOs have to step in to help people with
disabilities.
Here is the story of one such disabled person who had to fall back on the
Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangath (KMCS) for help and how he benefited from that.
Vanji is the son of a veteran activist of the KMCS, Nevji, who has fought many
battles for the rights of Bhil Adivasis in Alirajpur. On one occasion when he
and Vanji were returning from the market town of Kavant to their village Vakner
on their motorcycle there was an accident as another motorcycle driver crashed
into them. Vanji was grieviously hurt and his kneecap was dislocated. Given the
lack of proper Government health facilities nearby, Nevji took Vanji to a
private hospital in a nearby town Bodeli. The private hospital did not treat
Vanji properly and sent him back to his village.
After some time Vanji's leg developed gangrene and he had to be taken back
to Bodeli where another doctor, an orthopaedic surgeon said that his leg would
have to be amputated from above the knee. Thus, Vanji became disabled and his
life became severely constrained. All through this time the KMCS had offered to
provide proper medical treatment for Vanji but his father Nevji had decided to
pursue his own remedies which included going to the traditional Adivasi
medicine men. However, now that his son had lost his leg, Nevji finally came
round to the view that the help of the KMCS should be sought. Research revealed
that fitting a state of the art artificial leg which gives very good mobility would
cost Rs 1 Lakh and other associated expenses. This was clearly beyond the
budget of both Nevji and the KMCS. So instead a comparatively less efficient
leg was fitted which was available free from the Bhagwan Mahaveer Vikalang
Sahayta Samiti (BMVSS) which is famous for having developed the indigenous and cheaply manufactured Jaipur Foot.
With time this organisation has collaborated with the Johns Hopkins hospital in
the USA to improve the foot design so that now even feet that fold at the knee
have been developed and one of these was fitted on Vanji. With a little
practice, Vanji soon got habituated to this prosthesis and is now able to walk
freely and even raise fifty kilo weights as shown below. He is running a
grocery shop quite profitably and is very happy that he has regained
considerable mobility.
The Government does provide financial help to the BMVSS so that it can provide its prosthesis to people free of cost. However, not all people with disability know of this organisation and so there are many disabled people going round without proper prosthesis in this country despite it being their right to get help from the Government. The Government has now decided to provide state of the art prosthesis that allows a person to drive motor vehicles and run also. It remains to be seen how soon and how effectively this new scheme is implemented.
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