Lack of awareness and poverty in rural areas is leading to the growing incidence of cleft disorder in the country.
One out of every 700 Indian child was born with cleft disorder and an estimated 35000 new cases were reported every year, placing India second after China in the world in the incidence of cleft. More than a million people had to live with un-repaired clefts in the country as they were too poor to afford surgery.
To tackle this, Smile Train (ST), a New York-based leading cleft charity institution, had raised funds for surgery in a bid to free India from cleft disorders. It was working in association with more than 155 Indian medical hospitals, sponsoring the operation and post operative cost of disadvantaged families. In Kolkata, the organisation tied up with five hospitals, one of them being Institute of Child Health (ICH), a charitable hospital specialising in pediatrics.
Till date, 691 surgeries in cleft disorder had been done under this project, sponsored by ST.
The ST project in India started in 2000 and the partnership with 155 hospitals had led to 1,48,000 surgeries being performed free of cost for the poor, said Brian Mullaney, co-founder & president, ST.