Satya Sivaraman
New Delhi
WHAT should a wheelchair have to operate in
Indian conditions? ‘A good horn’. An outrageous
joke, isn’t it, but one which helps sum
up dismal Indian traffic conditions.
Jokes apart, for Dr Jon Pearlman, a researcher
from the University of Pittsburgh, USA, what is
more important is designing a wheelchair for
India’s large and growing population of people with
disabilities. Clearly it would have to be a wheelchair
which would be easy to manoeuvre on India’srugged terrain. “Unfortunate is how I would describe the situation
in India,” says Pearlman, who is currently
working at the Delhi-based Indian Spinal Injuries
Center (ISIC) on designing an electric wheelchair.
He points out that the country has everything that
is needed to design appropriate wheelchairs - sufficient
engineering talent, the required 
manufacturing
capabilities and a large customer base. Yet there
is a severe dearth of good quality wheelchairs.
To buttress his argument Pearlman refers to the
shocking conclusions of a paper published last year
titled, ‘Wheelchair charity: a useless benevolence in
community-based rehabilitation’ which looked at
the fate of manually-operated wheelchairs donated
to users in West Bengal.
Of the 167 wheelchairs studied, the results demonstrate that the majority went unused (57.4 per cent) and many were sold (14.2 per cent). Only 7.4 per cent were used regularly; the remaining were used occasionally (10.5 per cent) or were attendant-propelled (10.5 per cent). Rejection of the wheelchairs was attributed to lack of habitat adaptability ( 34 per cent), pain, fatigue and discomfort (28.6 per cent), frequent damage (15 per cent), upper limb issues (11.6 per cent), and inability to drive (10.7 per cent). It was also found that the cardio-espiratory response was higher in occasional users than regular users, while wheelchairs used for locomotive tasks were highly energy demanding and contributed to physiological strain. “The problem essentially lies in the fact that patients themselves are rarely consulted while designing wheelchairs and there is a ‘one size fits all’ approach that simply does not work in practice,” Pearlman says. For example, standard wheelchairs used in many Indian hospitals are not adjustable and cannot be adapted to suit the needs of individual patients.
The prototype of an electric wheelchair that Pearlman is developing hopes to overcome many ofthe typical problems that such assistive devices face. Started two years ago as part of a collaboration between the US Department of Education and the Artificial LimbsManufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO), Kanpur, a major government-run company, the project involves designing a manualchair, a paediatric chair and a power wheelchair appropriate for Indian users. Students from the Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur) were also involved in the designing of these prototypes. The prototype of the power wheelchair developed so far weighs a good 80 kg runs on a battery that is commonly used in most automobiles and has a steering wheel similar to that of a two-wheeler. Its special features are that its armrests can be moved up and down so that users can slide into the seat from the sides of the chair and its seat isadjustable to various angles. The device has five wheels – two in the front, two at the back and one in the middle – to give it maximum manoeuverability and traction in offroad conditions. Further, the wheelchair has a braking system designed to be always on when there is no power supply in order to prevent accidental motion. “Our goal is to get these wheelchairs produced and sold at a retail price of around Rs 40,000 or even less,” says Pearlman, who is in touch with several Indian manufacturers interested in taking up production and to whom the design will be given free of cost.
The cheapest electric wheelchair currently available in the Indian market is priced at around Rs 60,000. Though both the electronic controller and motor for the power wheelchair are imported from the United Kingdom and China respectively, Pearlman hopes to find indigenous substitutes soon. An important consideration in the designing of the wheelchairis hat it should be easy to repair and have parts that are locally replaceable. Pearlman is also carrying out research on understanding thevarious needs and behaviour patterns of wheelchair users in order to develop the design further. Currently, the prototype design isbeing fine tuned through consultations with patients at the ISIC, which has recently set up a Department of Assistive Technology (DAT)in collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh on its campus in New Delhi. Though Pearlman is diplomatic about the situation ofpeople living with disabilities in India, the fact is that there is simply not enough social or government concern for this section. To begin with, till the 2001 Census, there was no accurate figure for the number of disabled people in the country. Coverage of disabled people was included in the Census only after repeated appeals and a massive campaign, which included huge dharnas and a deluge of letters and faxed messages to the Prime Minister's Office. Till the latest census the Government of India, based on a 1991 survey, put the figure of the number of disabled at 1.9 per cent of the Indian population.
The recent Census report points to a disability percentage of 2.13per cent, which means the number of people with disabilities is 2.19 crore. According to the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), owever, the percentage of people with disabilities in developing countries stands at 10 per cent, and the Asia-Pacific average is 5-6 per cent. If this is true then the real figure for people with disabilities in India should be around 70 million. Government figures put the number of those with disabilities in employment at a meagre one per cent while according to an independent study Indians spend Rs 72,000 crore per annum in caring for disabled family members. The government bears only a fraction of this cost. “More than anything else it is the degree of concern for each individual user that lies at the heart of good designing,” says Pearlman.
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