India has announced plans to establish an artificial limb fitment centre, a specialist hospital and a vocational training institute for the Palestinian people, creating a potentially significant role for Indian rehabilitation expertise in Gaza’s long-term recovery.
The three development projects were announced by External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar during the launch of India’s campaign for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for the 2028–2029 term.
The Embassy of the State of Palestine in New Delhi welcomed the announcement, describing the projects as an important contribution at a time when Gaza faces extensive damage to its healthcare infrastructure and a rapidly growing population requiring rehabilitation and prosthetic care.
The proposed projects are:
- A specialist hospital
- An artificial limb fitment centre
- A vocational training institute
For India’s prosthetic and orthotic sector, the artificial limb centre could become one of the country’s most important international rehabilitation partnerships.
Gaza faces an exceptional demand for prosthetic care
The artificial limb centre is being proposed in response to a humanitarian emergency that has created thousands of traumatic injuries, including amputations, severe burns, spinal injuries and complex fractures.
The Palestinian Embassy said thousands of people who have lost limbs require prosthetic services, rehabilitation and long-term medical care. It also highlighted the widespread destruction or disruption of hospitals and shortages of medicines and clinical supplies.
Amputation is only the beginning of a lengthy clinical pathway.
Many injured people require:
- Reconstructive or revision surgery
- Residual-limb and wound management
- Prosthetic assessment and socket fitting
- Physiotherapy and gait training
- Occupational therapy
- Pain management
- Psychological and trauma support
- Repairs and replacement components
- Long-term follow-up as physical needs change
Children present a particularly urgent challenge because they require repeated socket replacements and component changes as they grow.
A successful artificial limb centre must therefore be designed as a multidisciplinary rehabilitation facility rather than simply a workshop distributing prostheses.
India can bring experience in affordable prosthetic provision
India has extensive experience manufacturing and delivering lower-cost prosthetic and orthotic devices for large patient populations.
Indian organisations have operated high-volume artificial-limb fitting programmes across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. These initiatives have demonstrated the ability to combine local fabrication, rapid fitting and affordable components in humanitarian and lower-resource settings.
India’s domestic rehabilitation sector includes:
- Government artificial-limb manufacturing organisations
- Charitable prosthetic programmes
- Private component manufacturers
- Prosthetic and orthotic educational institutions
- Digital scanning and CAD providers
- CNC milling and 3D-printing companies
- Physiotherapy and rehabilitation hospitals
- Specialists in paediatric and diabetic-foot care
This ecosystem gives India the capacity to support the Palestinian project through equipment, component supply, professional training and clinical service development.
However, the centre should not depend indefinitely on visiting Indian teams. Its long-term success will be determined by whether Palestinian professionals are trained and equipped to manage the service locally.
The centre should be built around Palestinian capacity
International rehabilitation projects often begin with strong financial and technical support but struggle when overseas teams leave or donor funding changes.
India can avoid this outcome by placing Palestinian workforce development at the centre of the project.
The programme could include:
- Scholarships for Palestinian students to study prosthetics and orthotics in India
- Short-term technical training for existing Palestinian clinicians
- Clinical placements in Indian rehabilitation hospitals
- Training in socket fabrication, alignment and gait assessment
- Education in paediatric and bilateral-amputee rehabilitation
- Workshop management and quality-control training
- Biomedical equipment maintenance
- Remote mentoring from Indian specialists
Training should cover both conventional fabrication and newer digital production methods.
A blended system would allow clinicians to use established low-cost techniques while gradually introducing digital scanning, computer-aided design and additive manufacturing where these technologies are appropriate.
Indian institutions could form a rehabilitation consortium
The scale of the need may be too large for one organisation to manage alone.
India could create a consortium involving public institutions, non-governmental organisations, universities, manufacturers and private rehabilitation providers.
Different partners could contribute separate areas of expertise.
A national artificial-limb manufacturer could support standard component supply, while specialist charities could contribute high-volume fitting experience. Universities could provide professional education, and private companies could supply digital equipment, materials and technical support.
The consortium could include expertise in:
- Lower-limb prosthetics
- Upper-limb prosthetics
- Paediatric prosthetics
- Spinal and lower-limb orthotics
- Wheelchairs and mobility devices
- Diabetic-foot products
- Rehabilitation medicine
- Physiotherapy and occupational therapy
- Psychological rehabilitation
- Vocational reintegration
A coordinated approach would reduce duplication and prevent the centre from becoming dependent on a single supplier or technology platform.
Appropriate technology will be essential
Gaza’s operating environment will require careful product selection.
Prosthetic systems must be durable, affordable and repairable. They should function in high temperatures, dusty conditions, damaged urban environments and situations where electricity or specialist servicing may be unreliable.
Components should be selected according to:
- Clinical suitability
- User weight and activity
- Local terrain
- Availability of replacement parts
- Ease of repair
- Compatibility with local footwear
- Cost of long-term maintenance
- Training available to local technicians
Advanced electronic knees, powered ankles and myoelectric upper-limb devices may benefit selected patients, but they should not replace dependable mechanical solutions that can be maintained locally.
The most appropriate prosthesis is not necessarily the most technologically complex. It is the device that meets the patient’s functional goals and remains usable over time.
Digital manufacturing could improve scalability
India’s growing capabilities in digital prosthetic and orthotic production could help the new centre manage high patient volumes.
A digital workflow may include:
- Residual-limb or body scanning
- Remote clinical review
- Computer-aided socket modification
- Centralised design support
- Local or regional manufacturing
- Digital storage of patient records
- Faster reproduction of replacement sockets
Digital records would be especially useful for children and patients whose sockets require frequent replacement.
A Palestinian clinician could capture a new scan and work with an Indian design team remotely, reducing the need to send physical casts or bring every complex patient overseas.
Nevertheless, digital tools cannot replace clinical assessment. Scanning captures shape, but it does not independently evaluate pain, tissue condition, muscle strength, joint range or the patient’s functional goals.
The specialist hospital and limb centre should operate together
The decision to develop both a specialist hospital and an artificial limb centre offers an opportunity to create a connected treatment pathway.
Many people with conflict-related amputations require further surgery before prosthetic fitting. Poor soft-tissue coverage, infection, bone prominence, contracture and delayed wound healing can prevent successful socket use.
The hospital could provide:
- Limb reconstruction
- Amputation revision
- Orthopaedic and plastic surgery
- Burn management
- Neurological rehabilitation
- Pain services
- Paediatric treatment
- Psychological support
The limb centre could then manage prosthetic assessment, fabrication, fitting and follow-up.
Locating these services within the same clinical network would reduce fragmented care and improve communication between surgeons, prosthetists, therapists and rehabilitation physicians.
Vocational training can complete the rehabilitation pathway
The third Indian-supported project, a vocational training institute, is directly relevant to people with disabilities.
Rehabilitation should not end when a person receives a prosthesis.
The ultimate objective is participation in family, education, employment and community life.
The vocational institute could provide accessible training in areas such as:
- Prosthetic and orthotic technical work
- Digital design
- Information technology
- Equipment repair
- Administration
- Tailoring and manufacturing
- Entrepreneurship
- Healthcare support roles
People who have received prosthetic services could be trained for employment within the rehabilitation centre itself.
India’s charitable prosthetic sector has examples of former patients becoming skilled technicians. Applying this model in Palestine could transform recipients from beneficiaries into rehabilitation professionals and community leaders.
India’s wider development support for Palestine
The three proposed projects form part of India’s continuing development and humanitarian relationship with Palestine.
In June 2026, India confirmed that it would provide the first USD 2.5 million instalment of its annual USD 5 million contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. India also reiterated its support for humanitarian access and a negotiated two-state solution.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs has previously stated that the country supports safe, timely and sustained delivery of humanitarian assistance to Palestinians.
The artificial limb project would move India’s support beyond emergency aid towards permanent healthcare and rehabilitation infrastructure.
A major opportunity for India’s P&O profession
For Indian prosthetists and orthotists, the announcement represents both a humanitarian responsibility and an opportunity to demonstrate the country’s rehabilitation capabilities internationally.
Indian professionals could contribute through:
- Clinical volunteering
- Remote case review
- Curriculum development
- Technician training
- Equipment installation
- Component testing
- Workshop planning
- Quality assurance
- Outcome monitoring
- Research partnerships
Professional bodies and academic institutions should also consider how to establish ethical standards for Indian participation.
All services should be clinically led, transparent and coordinated with Palestinian authorities and rehabilitation professionals.
The project should avoid a short-term camp model in which large numbers of devices are fitted without reliable follow-up. Gaza’s patients will need support for decades, particularly children, bilateral amputees and people with multiple injuries.
Measuring success beyond the number of limbs fitted
The artificial limb centre’s success should not be measured only by the number of prostheses delivered.
More meaningful indicators would include:
- Time from wound healing to prosthetic assessment
- Socket comfort and skin outcomes
- Ability to return to school or work
- Walking independence
- Patient satisfaction
- Device repair rates
- Availability of replacement components
- Number of Palestinian professionals trained
- Percentage of services delivered by local teams
- Long-term patient retention and follow-up
These outcomes would demonstrate whether the programme creates sustainable mobility rather than temporary device access.
From Indian assistance to Palestinian ownership
India’s proposal to establish an artificial limb fitment centre could become a landmark project for the country’s rehabilitation sector.
It combines India’s experience in affordable prosthetic technology with an urgent need for large-scale, long-term care in Palestine.
The strongest version of the project would not simply transfer Indian products to Gaza. It would transfer knowledge, develop Palestinian professionals and establish a centre capable of operating independently.
India can provide the initial funding, technology, training and institutional partnerships.
The long-term objective should be a Palestinian-led rehabilitation system that can manufacture, fit, repair and replace devices locally.
For Bharat CPO’s professional community, the project is an opportunity to show that Indian prosthetics and orthotics can contribute not only affordable devices, but also education, infrastructure and sustainable clinical services.
- India New England News – Palestine welcomes India’s new development projects for Gaza
- Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India
- Embassy of the State of Palestine in India
- United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
- World Health Organization – Rehabilitation
- International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics
- Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India
- Jaipur Foot – Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti