Project Muskan: Social responsibility of the plastic surgeon

Although exact statistics are not available, Indian plastic surgeons see around 7,00,000–8,00,000 burn admissions annually with around 10,00,000 cleft patients yet to be operated. In spite of this voluminous load, India does not have national health programs for the various deformities Indian plastic surgeons typically treat. As Plastic Surgeons, it is our social responsibility to treat these patients and bring ‘muskan’ (smile in Hindi) back into their lives. Project Muskan was initiated as an innovative model for targeting these patients and is probably one of its kind in the field of plastic surgery in our country. It is unique because it is a perfect collaboration of government institutions, a Non Government Organization (NGO), and cooperative sectors providing free health care at the doorstep. Identification of the patients was done with the help of the extensive milk dairy network in the state of Gujarat. Provision of transport and other facilities was done by the NGOs and quality health care provision was taken care of by the government hospital. Project Muskan started from a single village but now covers around 3000 villages and tribal areas of Gujarat. It is a system that can be easily reproducible in all hospitals and has reestablished the faith of the common man in government institutes.