Two IIT-Delhi students have won the James Dyson Award from India for designing a wheelchair that conveniently shifts the users from wheelchairs to other mediums. Amit Kumar and Rituparna Guha have been felicitated with Rs 1.70 lakh as prize money.

After interacting with several such mobility impaired patients at the Cheshire Home for Disability, the Indian winners realised the lack of an effective solution which could efficiently shift the patients to and from wheelchairs, as per the press release. Furthermore, the team identified that this was a problem haunting most patients suffering from paraplegia in India. Keeping this as the central focus, they started finding a solution which could make patients more self-sufficient.

James Dyson award is an international design competition led by the British entrepreneur. The international winner will be selected from hundreds of applications across the world later this year.

This shifting wheelchair, Samarth also drastically reduces the efforts of caregivers in the handling of patients, especially during transfer.

“Many sleepless nights at the design studio, repeated visits to the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, Cheshire Home for Disability and rounds between wholesale markets, numerous prototypes and lots and lots of feedback brought us to what we call Samarth. We have nurtured this because we saw potential in it to reduce the pain and inconvenience caused a lot many suffering people in India,” say Rituparna and Amit as they gear up for the next step of this journey which is “designing the innovation for manufacturers.”

Last year, an IIT-Kanpur student had won the award (India) for designing efficient stretcher that transfers patient without any pain.