an increasingly greying india as life expectancy increases with medical technology and applications comes with a growing demand for geriatric care a significant part of geriatric care and also care for people with disabilities is prosthetics and orthotics to ensure mobility and better quality of lifeprosthetics and orthotics is a dynamic and growing space that involves medical treatment as well as designing planning and fitting of mobility aids such as artificial limbs and braces prosthetists and orthotists rehabilitate people with mobility issues and are significantly needed by senior citizens with physical issues that make them immobile or bedridden working professionals in this area need to be qualified and certifiedmobility india a nonprofit registered society offers a fouryear bachelors degree in prosthetics and orthotics at their campus in bengaluru this society is recognised by rehabilitation council of india and is affiliated to the rajiv gandhi university of health sciences the firstofitskind course in south india this course includes a sixmonth internshipeligibility contentthose interested in this course need to have completed 12 years of schooling with physics chemistry and mathematicsbiology as major subjects with a minimum 50 per cent marksin the first year the students study anatomy physiology workshop technology and material science applied mechanics and strength of materials biomechanics basic electronics prosthetics and orthotics in the second the subjects are pathology orthopaedics amputation surgery and imaging science community rehabilitation and disability prevention psychology and sociology and pharmacology in the third year they study computer science and graphical communication assistive technology and research methodology and biostatistics in the fourth year the course contains management and administration clinical practice in prosthetics and orthotics and a project every year the course has higher biomechanics and prosthetics and orthoticsthe sixmonth internship that follows before the degree comprises clinical practicethis course is for those who are creative and have an inclination to devise solutions to challenging problems it takes a lot of patience and perseverance to assist and work with people with mobility issuesfee course detailsthe total fee charged for the course is rs 560 lakhs this fee is for indian nationals the course starts in september or october every year the course has 4880 teaching hours excluding six months internship around 60 percent of the course comprises practical trainingcore competence acquiredprofessionals in the field of prosthetics and orthotics need to be equipped with knowledge of both clinical treatment as well as the functioning of assistive devicesthis course will equip students with indepth knowledge in formulation of treatment along with designing fabrication and fitting of assistive devices they will be able to set up a clinic and practice says ritu ghosh deputy director training mobility india prospectsthe need for qualified professionals in this field is growing by the day according to a world health organization who report 15 per cent of the worlds population have some form of disability of whom 24 per cent have significant difficulties in functioning this is a large number of people who need assistive devices and professional carein india a