I had gone past it a thousand times… and for once the thousand’s not an exaggeration, its an understatement if anything. The building’s right next to my school where I spent almost ten years, so yeah it was a place I knew. Or so I thought…I did know that it was a place where they fit Jaipur foot, and I did know that it was a prosthetic for the handicapped, but I didn’t know that they fit almost 60,000 of them a year, that it’s the largest organization that fits them and by far the most successful one, didn’t know that they do it for free or that their founder - Dr. D.R. Mehta is a Padma Shri recipient. Yup…I didn’t know a lot.

Located in the heart of Malviya Nagar, and surrounded by a grove of trees that all but obscures it from the view; though the place needs no introduction for many people. Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti is the world’s largest limb fitting society, having successfully fitted jaipur foot to more than 10 lac people, most of them below the poverty line or war amputees.

The tea stalls outside protected from the scorching sun of mid-summer by the ashok trees, are in good business. Mostly villagers, who come from almost every place in Rajasthan and some from beyond too, are sitting on the stone beams, being used for the construction that I can see going on inside. A lot of bikes are parked outside the building that must belong to the students who come to visit the library, and some are of the interns that work there, as I am about to find out. Right at the door I see a pretty medico, somewhere in her twenties, trying to help fit a prosthetic limb to a middle aged woman. Both apparently seem to enjoy the process, and share a rapport that’s a treat to watch. Going by the spirit that the place exhibits, I’m am already expecting something amazing, but not quite what I finally witness.

Behind the glass doors, there’s a lot of activity - sounds of drills, shouting of workers, hubbub of patients, the building’s new and construction’s going on, so is a camp. In a large hall, many patients and their relatives are sitting on neatly aligned chairs with a registration desk on one side. Paintings of many Hindu deities adorn the halls, to suggest hope that faith promises, and places like these fulfill. As I look around and try to find my way, apparently a bit lost because of their multiplicity in front of me, I approach the medico again. I’m directed to unit 2, and as I go on my way to meet Dr. M.K. Mathur, whose the head of research and rehabilitation (yes, the organization does both these activities too), I see a lot of tricycles in the compound, arranged like trolleys on an airport. I finally find Dr. Mathur’s chamber, and as I can see from the door, a patient’s being helped with his calipers. The examination’s almost over and I am invited inside where other doctors are also present. After a friendly talk about how an engineer’s come to a medico’s ground of an ngo, Dr. Mathur explains to me how the organization was established, most of which I already know, thanks to internet. And some that I don’t…

“Almost everything that we do here is free of cost. Most of the below the knee amputees are successfully helped, and for the cases where it is not possible to do so, we give them tricycles so that their mobility is restored. You have to understand that most of the patients come from rural areas and many are below the poverty line, our focus is not just fitting them with a limb but trying to rehabilitate them so that they can become self-reliant. We also provide them economic aid, some have setup a tea-stall, some are employed in the organization.”

I am further told about the quality control measures, about their 9 other centers in India, how Jaipur foot’s technology was developed, and how it’s far superior to others, both technologically and economically – that is as I realize an entrepreneur’s dream come true.

“Jaipur foot wasn’t patented, because it was realized that the necessity for it was far more important than the profit that could be made from it.”

Seems a simple logical statement, doesn’t it? But such realization is rare, and rarer still is the success of an initiative motivated by ideals like these on such a large scale. Next, Shilpa, in-charge of the facility, takes me on a tour of the workshops. Every foot is custom made here and it can take from 4 hours to 1 day to make it. There are 2 main workshops, one where the doctors do most work of measurement and design of prosthetic and the other where the decided prosthetic is custom made by workers.

“Would you like to see a prosthetic being fitted to a patient?” Shilpa asks me. Yeah why not, though considering the pace at which the work was going on there I had already seen it at the gate and inside the compound. But the enormity of the structure, of the dedication of people who worked there, of the magnanimity of the donors from across the world that upheld it, and most importantly of the sheer will of people to provide this service to those in need; that made this seemingly simple task being performed in front of me a reality, had not sunk in before…

I thanked Mr. Mathur and said goodbye to Shilpa. As I come out of the building I see this beautiful Jain temple, made of pink sandstone, looking amazing with the sun behind it… It’s kinda uncrowded… with most people either in the units or the library… “Work is Worship”…Some people really know what that means.