Made-in-Anandwan customized footwear for elephantiasis patients

Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), with the help of Rotary Club of Nagpur Downtown, distributed specially designed made-in-Anandwan shoes to 25 patients of elephantiasis on Wednesday. Nagpur became the first city in the country to distribute such specialized shoes to elephantiasis patients
The shoes are customized as per the shape and size of the patient’s leg and hand-crafted in Warora. The cobbler who crafted these shoes is a son of one of the leprosy patients.
Elephantiasis is a disfiguring disease that makes the patients permanently disabled. Due to this disease, the size of the foot grows abnormally and it becomes difficult for the patients so walk normally. It is also difficult to get the shoes fit for this abnormally large size, so the patients have to walk barefoot.
“Today, Nagpur has become the first city in the country to distribute such specialized shoes to elephantiasis patients,” said Radhakrishnan B, municipal commissioner. “It is a pilot project and we will be distributing customized shoes to 100 patients in the first phase. We will study the feedback and results of first 100 patients before implementing it on large scale,” he added. At present, Nagpur city has 837 patients of elephantiasis.
Dr Vikas Ingle, president of Rotary Club of Nagpur Downtown, said that it was a learning experience for them to work on this project. “NMC’s filaria officer Dr Jasmin Mulani told us about this concept and we immediately agreed because no one has done anything for these patients. As a doctor, I know what level of social stigma and physical problems these patients suffer,” said Dr Ingle. Industrialist Vivek Deshpande sponsored the project for the Rotary Club.
“We went straight to Anandwan in Warora where similar kind of specialized footwear used to be prepared for the leprosy patients. Yadav, well-known cobbler of this place, is now very old. His son agreed to prepare shoes for us,” said Dr Ingle.
Dr Vijay Pol, senior office-bearer of Anandwan, said that Yadav’s son Anand is an LLB and now pursuing his LLM. “He comes here for three hours in the morning and makes footwear. Each shoe is different because each patient’s needs are different,” said Dr Pol.
Filaria officer Dr Jasmin Mulani said that the concept was of ‘taking care over and above medical treatment’. “We have started morbidity management and disability prevention clinic at Manewada for elephantiasis patients. Most areas of Nagpur city are now elephantiasis-free zones. New shoes fitting to their feet were a big morale booster for these patients,” she said.