Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (BMVSS) is the world's largest organisation rehabilitating over 1.55 million disabled. BMVSS provides all its assistance, including artificial limbs, calipers and other aids and appliances totally free of charge.
BMVSS was registered as a society under the Rajasthan Societies Registration Act on March 29, 1975 (vide registration number 261/1974-75). It has its headquarters at Jaipur (India). It is a pan-Indian organisation having 23 branches, spanning Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir) to Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Ahmedabad (Gujarat) to Guwahati (Assam). Metropolitan cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Varanasi, Patna, etc also have limb fitment centres of BMVSS.
Since inception, BMVSS has rehabilitated more than 1.55 million amputees and polio patients by fitting / providing artificial limbs (Jaipur Foot variety), calipers, and other aids and appliances, mostly in India and also in 27 countries across the world.
Apart from providing the widest possible range of services for the disabled, BMVSS is also focused on research and development, and tries to combine service with science.
BMVSS has forged agreements with Stanford University, USA; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA; the Indian Space Research Organisation; and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur, Manipal University Jaipur, for research and development, Professors of other IITs, namely Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai, too are helping BMVSS. Further, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur; National Institute of Technology, Delhi; and companies such as Jain Irrigation, Pinnacle Industries, Polymedicure and Universal Medicap have agreements with BMVSS for research. Other corporates also support BMVSS. Dow Chemical International Pvt Ltd (Dow India), a leading company in polymers, is helping BMVSS in improving the components of its aids and appliances to further enhance the functionality and longevity of the polyurethane (PU) foot, which is likely to rehabilitate hundreds of thousands of amputees the world over.
The Stanford-BMVSS Jaipur Knee, which is the product of research due to a formal memorandum of understanding between BMVSS and Stanford University, was hailed by Time magazine USA(November 23, 2009 issue) as one of the world's 50 best inventions in 2009.
