Odisha Govt Renews MoU with CURE India for Clubfoot Programme

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government on Monday renewed its MoU with CURE International India (CURE India) for the Clubfoot Programme.

This has been informed by the State Health and Family Welfare Department.

The Clubfoot Programme is a joint collaboration between Health & Family Welfare (H&FW) Department, Women & Child Development (W&CD) Department and Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disability (SS&EPD) Department to eradicate disability in children caused by clubfoot through Ponseti method of treatment.

Clubfoot is one of the world’s most common physical disabilities in newborn infants, as a result of which the feet gets twisted inward and around.

In Odisha, with a population of over 4 crore, it is estimated that around 2000 children are born with clubfoot every year.

Many of these children grow up with clubfoot and they live physically challenged all their life, and most of them never get an opportunity for education.

The objective of the Odisha Clubfoot programme is to eradicate disability in children caused by clubfoot through the Ponseti method of treatment.

The programme was initiated in December 2012, through an MoU signed by the Odisha Government with Cure International India Trust (CURE India), a national healthcare organization working in the country. The MoU is periodically renewed.

Till date more than 5000 children from the State have benefitted from the programme, around 110 doctors of Odisha have been trained in Ponseti Technique, apart from various other activities being undertaken under the programme.

Owing to successful running of the programme the State government renewed the MoU for a further period of two years in the presence of H&FW Minister, Commissioner-cum-Secretary H&FW Department Shalini Pandit and officers representing W&CD Department as well as SS&EPD Department and Director, Cure International India Trust (Cure India).