A leg to stand on

In the US, a typical prosthetics specialist who fits artificial legs for amputees might handle 15 or 20 such patients a year, fitting them with custom-built legs that can cost upward of $6,000 apiece. Each patient then gets a series of follow-up visits to make sure the new limb was properly fitted.

But in India, the Jaipur Foot Organization handles that many patients every day in each of its local centres. The charity is the world's largest provider of prosthetics and has worked with about a million patients since being founded in 1975.

The JFO, also known as Bhagwan Mahavir Viklang Sahyata Samiti, is based in Jaipur, a city of more than three million people that is the capital of Rajhastan in northern India. The artificial legs they provide, based on a locally developed design, cost about $40, and the company has little time or funding for follow-up consultations, or for developing new methods.