SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Feb 20: Anjali Sharma, a class IX student of Delhi Public School (DPS) Bokaro got the national Scientific Innovation award 2023 and a cash prize of Rs 10,000 from the government of India.
Anjali has designed hi-tech crutches equipped with GPS and SoS calling facilities.
Notably, physically challenged people use crutches to walk. However, these crutches don’t support them for a long period of time. Anjali’s innovative crutches support when a physically challenged person gets tired of walking. The adjustable seat on both sides of the crutches joins together and transforms into a chair.
Anjali’s crutches are installed with GPS to trace the precise location of the person. The family members can see where the person is and which route he is going on. Not only this, but in case of an emergency, it will also make a direct call to the next of kin.
“The device is also equipped with an automatic calling facility with sensors, Micro Controller Unit (MCU) and SIM card. If the person falls while walking, then the device detects the unexpected jerk on the crutches and a call is automatically made to the relatives with the help of the sensor. For this, phone numbers are required to be fed into the computer plus coding in the MCU,” said Anjali.
Apart from the automatic calling sensor, she is also working on the facility of calling from the emergency push button. She has also made an automatic calling watch for the safety of girls, for which she was selected for the Inspire Award last year. The same technology has also been weaved into this support system.
The accident of her father (a BSL officer), who faced hardship in walking after the operation, motivated Anjali to work on such innovation.
“I was in the fifth standard when my father had undergone knee ligament surgery. In those days he used to walk with the help of crutches. He faced problems in executing his basic and most common chores. It was very difficult to walk especially in the dark. Once he fell down and got hurt,” she added.
The idea of making a special crutch was developing in her mind at that time and her School teacher, Md Obaidullah Ansari guided her to make her dream true.
Dr AS Gangwar, principal of DPS Bokaro, highly appreciated Anjali’s innovation.
