Professionals and researchers in the field of prosthetics and orthotics should develop alternative assistive devices for persons with disabilities that could be manufactured indigenously at affordable cost, said G. Narayana Rao, chairman and managing director, Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO), Kanpur.
At the valedictory of the 21 national conference of the Orthotics and Prosthetics Association of India on Sunday, he said that 70 per cent of persons with loco-motor disorders lived in rural India and could not afford assistive devices such as artificial limbs at high cost.
“There is an urgent need to develop indigenous products that everybody can afford. Unless we develop such devices, we will not be able to provide them to the needy,” he said.
ALIMCO provides assistive devices costing up to Rs. 6,000 free of cost to persons with disabilities under a scheme of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, he said, insisting that doctors recommend needy patients so that they could get these devices.
Stressing the need for professionals in the area of rehabilitation to register themselves with Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), its member secretary T.D. Dhariyal said it was against the law to practice without registration.
“This is to maintain standards to ensure that persons with disabilities get the right kind of service.”
Governor K. Rosaiah presented lifetime achievement awards to senior faculty members in the field. B. Madhouraj, organising chairman of the conference, also spoke.
