IIT Madras incubated startup empowers 160 differently-abled with the help of Rs 75 lakh CSR funding

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras incubated-startup NeoMotion has developed customised wheelchairs for 163 differently-abled people with the help of three independent Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects.

“The plan is to impact 1000 lives with a total CSR support of Rs 10 Crore for 1,000 NeoBolt and NeoFly units in the next 12 months,” said an official statement from IIT Madras.

Also Read | Tamil Nadu state song must be sung at IIT Madras, writes minister: Report

NeoMotion has commercially launched ‘NeoBolt’, India’s first indigenous motorized wheelchair vehicle and ‘NeoFly,’ a personalized wheelchair designed to enhance health and lifestyle of differently abled persons.

The institute explained in its statement that Important factors such as user seating comfort, postural factors, compactness are ignored and oversized one-size-fits-all wheelchairs are provided to all beneficiaries. As a result, even though thousands of wheelchairs are provided to as many beneficiaries, the number of lives positively impacted are much lower.

Also Read | IIT Madras to bring UG students back to campus batch by batch from 2022

A total of 29 NeoBolt motorized outdoor mobility attachments and 160 NeoFly wheelchairs have been donated to 163 beneficiaries through three independent CSR projects, amounting to a total CSR funding of Rs 75 Lakh, the statement said.

Laxmi Priya from Puducherry received the wheelchair "NeoBolt"

Vikas Gupta from Jharkhand received "NeoBolt"CSR selected beneficiaries on the basis of Socio-Economic status, Need assessment, Diagnosis, and Age, among other criteria.

Also Read | IIT Delhi collaborates with National Law University Delhi on law, technology research

Sharing the current status of this project, Swostik Sourav Dash, Chief Executive Officer, NeoMotion, said: “The beneficiaries find the NeoFly and NeoBolt as a complete indoor and outdoor solution. They are finding themselves being more productive, with respect to daily activities like going to the market, travelling for their job and working long hours sitting on the wheelchair, which they could not achieve with the traditional wheelchairs.”

“We are working on a project - Livelihood on Wheels where NeoBolt can be a tool to get employment - deliver newspapers, milk, food items and other last-mile delivery jobs, which will help them earn a livelihood,” he added.