Each year, approximately 35,000 children in India are born with clubfoot.

Kunal Premnarayen was one of them.

Premnarayen was treated as a child in the 1980s and went on to achieve success in business as the CEO of ICS Group. He and his family saw an opportunity to help children like him who were born in India with clubfoot, but who may not otherwise have access to quality treatment. Although MiracleFeet had been working in India since 2011 and Premnarayen was a member of the MiracleFeet Board of Directors, Kunal wanted to enable MiracleFeet to have a greater impact in India.

In 2014, he established MiracleFeet India, headquartered in Mumbai, with a vision of ending the disability caused by untreated clubfoot in India, increasing awareness of the issue nationally, and raising the funding needed to tackle the problem in India from Indian donors. Premnarayen’s vision of an Indian-supported NGO serving the thousands of Indian children living with untreated clubfoot started to take shape. He quickly won support from some of India’s largest corporate donors, including JSW, TataPower, Tata Investments, Pacific Malls, Bajaj Foundation, and Hero Enterprises.

Now a registered Indian charity and tax-exempt 80G organization with FCRA approval, MiracleFeet India has hired an experienced Executive Director and Medical Director, among other key team members, and in July 2018 embarked on the next exciting phase of its growth: launching its own programs.

As of July 1, 2018, MiracleFeet India now manages and operates 8 clinics in the state of Uttar Pradesh. An estimated 7,000 children are born with clubfoot each year in Uttar Pradesh alone. Thanks to a partnership with the state’s Department of Family Welfare, Department of Medical Education, and National Health Mission, MiracleFeet has begun the work treating this leading cause of disability.

We estimate that fewer than 20% of children born with clubfoot in India are currently receiving proper treatment. This partnership with the largest state in India is a first step to making sure that 70% of all children in India have access to treatment in the next 5-10 years. With support from MiracleFeet India’s strong Board of Directors and growing team, MiracleFeet plans to raise a majority of the funds through corporate partnerships, grants, and individual donations in India to create an entirely Indian solution which will ensure long-term sustainability.

Although the solution comprises many moving parts – donors, staff, clinicians, plus the work of treatment, training, outreach, and monitoring – the impact Premnarayen envisions begins with the simple joys of childhood, made available to all children throughout India. “Our goal is to ensure that no child born in India with clubfoot has to suffer the pain and stigma of living without the simple, low-cost treatment that he or she needs in order to run, walk, and play,” he says.