How technology helped me to change some lives | Prashant Gade | TEDxNMIMSShirpur

More than 10 million people are living across the globe with disabilities that don't have solutions, just because they can't afford them. The idea was to help by giving them the proper prosthetic care they deserve.

Prashant Gade is a 25-year-old social entrepreneur and an innovator. When Prashant was 22, he met an amputee, and this incident changed his life. Prashant quit his job and gave his full time attention to designing an affordable prosthetic hand. At the time, prosthetic hands normally cost 10,000 US dollars, but through determination and hard work, Prashant developed a prosthetic hand for less than 100 US dollars.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

My name is Prashant,

and before I start,
I would like to ask you one question:

What normally you do
when you come across

something or someone
that is really disturbing?

Maybe you meet someone
living a miserable life,

or you find some
social media post of someone.

So I feel like most of us
will do one of these two:

Either you will give away some money

so the person can have the food
for the rest of the day,

or if you are looking
at some social media,

you are just like going to skip it
because it's too bad.

You don't want to look at it.

So two year back,

I came across the same situation,
which eventually changed my life.

And here's my story.

So I believe like 90% of the engineering
Indian stories start with engineering,

and the same thing happened with me.

Starting from my childhood,
I was really interested in one word.

Like, how does it work?

Which make me to open my toys

and made my parents to think,

[Hindi] our son will become an engineer.

So hopefully I got admitted
into an engineering college.

And I was really excited
to learn more things, to meet new people,

but the real engineering world

was quite different
from the way I thought,

because I was really not allowed
to explore, to learn, and to create,

which eventually frustrated me.

And the only thing
which I was supposed to do

was like learn how to get 40,
pass the exam, get the job, life ended.

(Applause)

But I was really not willing to be a sheep
and follow the same crowd.

So in my third year of engineering,

I decided to drop out
and start doing something which I love.

So I started a lab,

the Curiosity Lab,

where I used to teach
my juniors and to my seniors

how to make robots.

But in a year, I was made [to] realize

that this dropout word
doesn't work for everyone,

and somehow I have to complete
my engineering.

So engineering done, chapter one closed.

Now, don't be so happy,
you have to struggle for the job.

So like everyone, my parents
want me to start finding a job,

but I was really not interested
in doing a job for someone else.

So I gave a call to my parents
and I said like,

"I'm more willing to work
in the same lab where I used to do."

And my parents said,
"OK, go and try for it."

And for a month,
everything was going fine,

but after a month,

I felt like this is not the thing
for which I am born.

This is not giving me the purpose.
I am not born to teach someone.

So again I gave a call to my parents,

and I said like,

"I'm not getting that click
from this teaching thing,

and I am going to quit it."

My parents said like,

"OK. Then you have
to go to Pune to your brother

and start searching for a job."

But still, in my head, I was really clear
that I don't want to do a job.

But I thought,

"OK, I can at least
go to Pune, to my brother."

My brother used to teach me
Java and aptitude,

so that I can crack the interviews.

But I really feel frustrated out of it,
and I used to feel to run away.

At the same time, I saw a Facebook post

from a fab lab which was looking
for some electronic engineer

with some basic background in robotics.

And I saw [it] as an opportunity,
and I thought, why not to apply for it?

And I just blindly applied for the post.

The interview went well,

but they said like,
"OK, we can give you the job,

but we can offer only 5,000 per month."

So I thought like it's good
to have something that you love

instead of running behind money.

So I just took that job.

And, you got the job.

Chapter two closed.

Now, I believe there
are two best days in everyone's life.

The day first, when you are born.
And the day second, you know "why."

So I got that purpose,
the purpose to live.

So during that fab lab,

I get an opportunity
to know about Fab Academy,

a distance learning course

that is run by Center
of Bits and Atoms at MIT, US.

So I thought to apply for this course
and enrolled for this course.

So for this course,
I need to have some final project,

which I need to complete in the six months
to get my graduation done.

So I was looking for something

that is really amazing
and something that is cool.

So I got the chance
to meet this guy, Nicholas.

He's from France,

and in an accident, he lost his right arm,

but instead of crying,
he made a robotic arm for himself.

And that really excited me.

And I thought like, "Why not
to make this as my final project?"

So at that point, I decided,
OK, I'm going to use this as my project.

So I made my first prototype.

And at that time, for me, it's like,
OK, it's just a project.

Nothing else.

So I made the first prototype.

Then I tested with some real patients.

Everything was going fine,
until and unless,

I met this girl, Shreya,

a seven-year-old girl living with no arms.

And that was the thing
that really touched me.

The day I met her,
I was really feeling like,

"What could have led her
to live such a life that she was living?"

I went sleepless, and I thought,
"Why not to find a solution for her?"

And I googled that night

and found something
that was really shocking.

I thought, I will find
some prosthetic hand for her.

And what I found -

one prosthetic hand
cost 10,000 US dollars.

99% of the people sitting here
can't afford that.

So I went on more
to find more about this topic.

And what I found is,

in India only,

there are - in every 10th minute -
there is one amputation.

More than 45,000 people
get amputated every year,

and more than 85% people
are still living without any solution.

And the reason behind it?

They can't afford it.
They can't afford a prosthetic device.

So I decided

this is the cause that I got from the God,
and I have to answer it.

And I quit my job, and I quit that course.

And again, this was the time

to give a shock to my parents
that I quit something again.

And I gave a call to my parents
and I said like,

"I'm going to quit this job.
I'm going to quit this course."

But my parents got
really angered this time,

and they were really not going
to allow me to spoil my life

for some social cause or something

because they said, "It's not your age

to be a responsible person
for the society.

At least you have to do
something for yourself."

So, but for me, it's like,

"I have to chase my dream.
This is something that is bigger than me."

So, but for my parents,
this was something, "Get a job."

They don't know anything apart from this.

But for me, it was like really hard
to put yourself from your dreams.

So what my parents did,
they asked me to join a course

that is called Diploma
in Advanced Computing,

a course that you do to get a job
or placement kind of a thing.

The day before I was going to the academy,
I just cried in front of my mother.

And I said, "I can't do this.

I'm not made for this thing.
Just don't do this thing to me."

And my mother said like,

"You don't have any option right now.
You have to go. Go for it."

So engineers - they are real clever.

So what I did,

I joined the academy,
but I never attended any class.

I used to go give
the biometric in the morning;

again, I go in the evening,
and I give the biometric.

And in the meantime,
I go back to the hostel,

and with whatever saving I have,
I use to design the hand in the room.

And in fifteen days,
I came [up] with one design.

And what I did -

I was looking for some more funds
so I can make something more good -

so what I did,

I started a campaign on Indiegogo
to raise the funds.

But the campaign was not that great.
I didn't raise a lot of money.

But the good thing happened.

The director of Jaipur,
the technical head of Jaipur Foot,

Mr. Deependra Mehta,
actually saw that campaign,

and he just gave me a call and said,

"Why don't you come to Jaipur
and show us what you have designed?"

So I just didn't tell to my parents
even that I am going to Jaipur.

And I just went to Jaipur.

And if I give a short intro
about Jaipur Foot is:

Jaipur is the world's biggest organization
that works for prosthetics

and give it for free.

So they called me over there
and, in a meeting of about an hour,

they gave me a grant
for designing seven different hands.

And this was the thing.

I was looking to get some help.
But I got the help.

Now it is the time to give again
a call to my parents and said,

"Now again, I am going to leave something.
The again - the course."

And, but for me it was real severe,
because if I am going to say something

that I'm going to leave the course,

this time my parents
are going to get angry like anything.

So for me, it was a time
to decide what I had to do.

Then what I did is
I just gave a call to my parents,

and I said like,
"I'm going to leave that course,

and because I feel
this is the purpose of my life,

and I want to do something for people."

And I just clicked

a screenshot of the check
that I got from Jaipur Foot

and send to my parents.

And the call that I got
from my parents said,

"Now whatever happen in your life,
you will be responsible for it.

We are not going
to be responsible at any point."

And the day I thought,
"I'm not going to look back,

until and unless,
I prove myself with some device."

So I packed my bag, went to Jaipur,
and started doing things.

Start making the hand.

So if I give you an overall view
of how it works,

like most of the prosthetic devices,
especially upper limbs,

cost about 10,000 US dollars.

And if I talk in Indian rupees -
in India, it starts from 12 lacs.

So I made a hand
from x to, I can say, one lac.

And I approached the Jaipur Foot director,

and said, "I made something
that is for one lac."

So he said, "No. We can't afford it."

I made it for 50,000.
He said, "We can't afford it."

I made it for 30,000.
He said, "We can't afford it."

I just asked him,
"How much you can afford?"

He said, "If you can
make it in 100 dollars."

That was real shocking,

How someone can make a hand

that is cost 10,000 dollars,
to 100 dollars?

But I know I have
broken all the back bridge.

I can't go back to my parents
and I said like I failed.

So what I did, I took the challenge,
and I started working on.

And put the engineer outside,
and I thought as a kid

who doesn't know anything
about engineering,

and who know about just
he has to make something.

So what I did,

I designed the circuit by my own,
and I assembled everything.

I used 3D printing and all.

And I made this thing.

And this is how it works.

And if I ask you
what is the cost of this hand?

It's 75 dollars.

(Applause)

So I brought the cost
from 10,000 dollars to 75 dollars,

but there was one more
big problem in front of me.

I was running out of money,

and Jaipur Foot said

they can fund me for each device
like 75 dollars for the patient,

but they don't have money

to give me the funds
to set up the machines.

So how I am going to make this hand?

So that was a big deal,

and I was not having money
to feed myself for the six months.

I was using the same amount

from the funds and the grants
that I got from Jaipur Foot.

So what I'm going to do now?

It's like the last month,

I had enough money to, at least,
feed myself for one time in a day.

Because if I feed myself two times,
I don't have money to rent my home.

So I used to eat at least once,
and it was really getting hard,

but something happened,
something good happened.

I put all those videos on YouTube,

and suddenly, a professor from US
saw those videos.

And he just gave me a call and said,
"Would you like to come to US

to a conference
that is on biomedical devices?"

And who's going to say, "No?"
I just said, "Yes!"

And he sponsored
my complete trip from India to US.

I went there.

I gave a talk on prosthetic devices
and the technology that I developed.

So after the talk, they just approached me
with some donors and the funders,

and they said like, "What help we can do?"

So I gave them like a whole thing
that what I need actually.

And I was looking for some resources.

Basically, they just thought for a second,
and they came back to me,

and said like, "You need machines, right?"

So I said, "Yes."

And so they said like,

"You're going back to India,
but you are not going alone.

We are going to give you
ten 3D printer machines.

And that's for free."

So I actually cried.

(Applause)

I cried at that moment
because God didn't gave me money,

but he gave me good people
who helped me out.

So I came back to India,

and I started a company
called Inali Foundation,

that means a start toward a new change.

And Inali is the name of a beautiful girl
whom I met four year back,

and like who found the good part in me.

And I am grateful
to have such a person in my life.

So after starting that company,

I have benefited more than 300 people.

And for free.

(Applause)

So how our things work -
we got funds from Jaipur Foot.

We ask people like,
"If it's your birthday,

and if you don't want a gift
but want to give a gift,

you can just approach us
and like send a hand to someone

who is really willing to get the hand."

So now I would like
to just start one video.

(Video begins)

(Music)

[This 3D printed hand
is created in just 20 hours]

[And it is less than $100]

[That's about 50 times cheaper
than some of the other products in market]

[It has become possible
with the help of 3D Printing Technology]

[INALI FOUNDATION
is behind the creation of the device]

[The hand is now ready and the project
is now supported by BMVSS (Jaipur Foot)]

(Video ends)