Life of a Soldier:

A soldier is a symbol of strength to us, they’ve dedicated their lives for the nation. Safeguarding the nation and its people is their prime duty and pride and very often the only means of livelihood for the whole family. They know what it means to be on the front, guarding us all and taking charge whenever required without giving a second thought about their own life. We owe so much to these real heroes.

But what if they get injured and becomes unfit to serve the nation, to take charge as an assigned officer on the front, life changes drastically for them. Many of these injuries are spinal cord related and are caused while fighting insurgencies in J- K and Eastern sector or in high-altitude conditions. Apart from battle injuries, many soldiers get injured in road accidents, landslides, avalanches. Some soldiers also suffer sports injuries. One day they’re keeping us all safe and the next day they’re crippled wheelchair-bound.

Some of them along with their whole family does not have any second source of income. Soldiers who were the pillars of their family now are a burden to them. They require special attention because of their limitations, not to mention the psychological trauma they go through due to this sudden change in their life. They require rehabilitation to start living again, to go beyond these physical and psychological blows and see their worth. Many of them feel that they’ve lost their purpose of living now that they’re disabled.

Paraplegic Rehabilitation Center:

In India, Paraplegic Rehabilitation Center (PRC) is one such facility which caters to these disabled army personnel and provide them with all state of the art therapies to stabilize them physically as well as mentally and bring them back to normal. Along with these therapies here at these centers they also get involved in occupational workshops where they learn some profitable skill and eventually get empowered. They also provide accommodation to their families if they are dependent on the soldier only and their family members may also get involved in the occupational workshops. Other than these therapies and workshops they are also exposed to rigorous sports activities which helps them in overall development.  

In India, there are two such centers; one in Mohali and another in Kirkee, Pune, having a capacity of 30 and 80 inmates respectively. 

As per Lt Gen Bipin Puri, Director General of the Armed Forces Medical Service, 200 armed personnel are becoming disabled every year and total capacity of PRC’s in India is 110 (Mohali and Pune). While 110 of them gets the care, the project is proposed for the rest of 90 the soldiers who are left unattained and are unable to get the required rehabilitation.

Motivation:

It all started with this piece of news, which clearly stated we need to do something about our fallen heroes. As 90 of them couldn’t get the required rehabilitation they drown themselves into depression.

In most of the cases, this paraplegic condition is non - recoverable and they’re supposed to live with this for the remaining years of their life. They get injured at their prime age and it is hard for them to accept all this as new normal. But through right rehabilitation at PRC facilities things can get better, and due to existing demand, I chose this facility as my thesis topic.

Challenges:

As mentioned earlier, this is not a proposed project and everything had to be researched out. Main challenges were developing an area program and finding a suitable site.

Through live and literature case studies and critical analysis, an area program was developed, wherein facilities at existing facilities like PRC Mohali and PRC Pune were studied and some international care facilities were taken for their state of the art facilities and then all of them were combined to form one program.  Also, the Indian Defense context was taken care of while developing the program.