The ‘Make in India’ policy seems to have created a huge problem for some children with hearing and speech impairment, as the Dr BR Ambedkar Memorial Hospital in Byculla, commonly known as Byculla Railway Hospital, has run out of cochlear implants. At least eight kids from across the country are waiting for their implants and surgeries for the same at this hospital, which performs it free for railway employees and their kin. But cochlear implants are only imported and not made in India, and the Railway Board, under Make in India, requires 20% local content, a criteria which vendors were unable to meet.

Growing up without sound

This is the only Railway hospital that has the cochlear implant surgery facility and gets patients from across the country. Yogendra Pathak, 59, grandfather of Harshi Pathak, 2, had travelled all the way from Kota during the lockdown to get a cochlear implant for her, but returned empty handed. Pathak’s family first discovered that Harshi had a hearing problem when she was six months old. “It has been three months since we took her to the Byculla Railway Hospital. We were told that the implant is out of stock and they will let us know when it is available. We are still to hear from them, and Harshi is growing up without being able to hear properly,” he said.