By Charles Haviland BBC correspondent in Madras

Many disabled people get little help

Some walk on crutches. Others, particularly those from impoverished backgrounds, must make do with dragging themselves along or using an improvised device such as a platform with wheels.

What you do not often see in India are self-driven wheelchairs.

Now a concerted campaign in the southern city of Madras is changing all that, thanks to an unusual link with Britain.

Revelation

Shipped by British Aerospace Systems, wheelchairs are being brought over under a scheme masterminded by Elizabeth Herridge, wife of the UK deputy high commissioner in Madras.

He has actually got a life of his own and he's a boy in his own right, thanks to a wheelchair Elizabeth Herridge

She had the idea more than three years ago while teaching English at a school for disabled children in the city.

Twenty girls with polio were recently presented with wheelchairs at a ceremony at the school.

"It started with one small boy here, who took half an hour to crawl down the wheelchair ramp to my English class," said Mrs Herridge, "and I thought, we can do better than this, we can get him a wheelchair.

"Then I realised that NOBODY had wheelchairs."

Prison friends

Visiting England, Mrs Herridge heard of a charity, the Inside Out Trust, that runs community workshops in prisons.

Polio cripples million in India

One thing prisoners do is refurbish second-hand wheelchairs. She decided to ask the trust for some chairs for Madras.

"I went along to their meeting, and they said 'how many wheelchairs would you like?' And I was going to say four, but I found myself saying a hundred!" she said.

And inmates at the high-security Garth prison, in Lancashire in northern England, swung into action.

To date, they have renovated 350 wheelchairs for Madras - each one tailor-made for a specific adult or child, their size and their requirements.

Dave Kellett, who instructs the prisoners in the Garth prison workshop, has been to Madras to see the scheme at first hand.

The prisoners in England "work with enthusiasm because they know they're putting work back out into the community and helping people a lot less privileged than themselves.

"I show them the photographs of the children, so they can relate what their work is doing to who they are doing it for.

"And I think it must have an effect because I even get letters from guys who've been transferred or released, asking how the project is going."

Changed lives

There is huge excitement as, one by one, the new wheelchairs are given out. A boy with withered limbs literally clambers off the floor and into his.

To be there in front of a child when you give him a wheelchair and the beaming smile - what more could one ask for? Dave Kellett prison instructor

"They are thrilled to have them. They are their prized possessions," says Akkamma Krishnamurthy, president of the orthopaedic centre. "Just now I saw one of the boys going round and round, turning himself this way and that way.

"I think they are even playing with a ball. So definitely that has made all the difference."

One of the adult recipients is Selvi, a polio patient in her late 30s who teaches at the school. All she has had in the past is occasional use of a shared wheelchair pushed by someone else.

"I'll be able to move without any help now. I'll also be able to help the younger children, take them on my lap and wheel them around," she says. "And I can fold the wheelchair and take it on the train when I visit my home town."

The big hurdle now is to make India more wheelchair-friendly. Ramps are almost unheard of and pavements are appalling.

'Beaming smile'

But Elizabeth Herridge says the wheelchair scheme is already changing lives - for instance for 10-year-old Manikandan, who suffers from a progressive disease and used to spend his days sitting on the floor.

"We gave him a wheelchair and within a week he was attending classes, he was eating from his wheelchair, he was writing on his wheelchair," says Mrs Herridge.

"Then we realised, because his profile had been raised, that he was actually very deaf.

"Then we were able to diagnose Morkio's disease, for which he has had treatment. And he has actually got a life of his own and he's a boy in his own right, thanks to a wheelchair."

Meanwhile, instructor Dave Kellett is about to head back to Garth jail in northern England, to convey to the prisoners the recipients' thanks.

"It's a pity my men can't see their faces," he says, "they can see it on a video and in a photo, but to get that feeling, to be there in front of a child when you give him a wheelchair and the beaming smile - what more could one ask for?"