Pune is one place where the same American NGO, Smile Train, the moving force behind treating Pinky, plays a major role in facilitating plastic surgeries for children with cleft lip and palates. Smile Train has till date facilitated over 4,000 surgeries in Pune, providing $350 per child.

“We are the world’s largest cleft lip and palate charity,” says the Pune project director Dr Shrirang Pandit. “Our overriding goal is to make safe and quality treatment of cleft lip and palate accessible to the millions who cannot afford it.”

Pandit feels there is the need for a national programme for such children. Though a cleft can be completely corrected with a simple surgical procedure that could take as little as 45 minutes and cost as little as Rs 8,000, this is one area that has not got much attention from the government. Many plastic surgeons in the city say it is high time the government came forward with a specific plan of action instead of leaving these children to funds from foreign agencies.

Col (Dr) Tejinder Bhatti, member of the governing council of the Association of Plastic Surgeons of India, says, “We perform at least 18-20 surgeries for rectifying clefts at Command Hospital every month. This not only transforms their acceptability among playmates but gives them a second chance at life,” says Bhatti, stressing the need for a national programme to address this problem. Though the condition is treatable, less than half get the treatment they desperately need, only because they are too poor. Without corrective surgery, these children are condemned to a lifetime of isolation and suffering, says Dr Parag Sahasrabuddhe, head of plastic surgery at Sassoon Hospital, where two surgeries are performed every week.