Cleft lip posing serious problem in third world countries

In India, he said, millions of children were forced to spend their life disfigured, handicapped and marginalized due to cleft lip and palate.

Sailer said most of them belonged to backward classes.

8220;Plagued with this deformity, combined with superstition, illiteracy and poverty notwithstanding, these children lead an obscure life,8221; he said, adding that most of them would require one to seven surgeries at various stages of life to correct the deformities.

Sailer, who was in Kolkatta to open a treatment centre for such children, told reporters on Tuesday that to help them, the CCI has tied up with city-based Bhagwaan Mahaveer Cleft Foundation, a charitable organisation, to set up a centre at a leading hospital in the metropolis.

This is the fifth such centre after Hyderabad, Mangalore, Mumbai and Chennai, Sailer said.

Sailer said his foundation offered these children a way out of their hopeless and degrading lives.

8220;In India alone, where we successfully set up our centres, we have accomplished over 10,000 surgeries. This does not include the thousands of follow-up treatments, orthodontic, therapeutic and psychological procedures,8221; he said.

He said the CCI has also trained over 100 doctors, nurses and speech therapists as a means of passing on the expertise to the less developed countries through the cleft centres.

Apart from the treatment, he said, the children would require rehabilitative support and prosthetic support. What was imperative was a strong mass awareness campaign, fund raising and stepped-up NGO activities and voluntary help.