Mumbai parents crowdfund Rs 16 Cr for 5-month-old baby's treatment, thank everyone

In a piece of heartening news, the parents of a five-month-old baby, suffering from a rare medical condition, have been receiving support from across the globe via crowdfunding for the treatment of their daughter. Baby Teera Kamat, admitted in Mumbai suburban hospital, is suffering from spinal muscular atrophy in which a complete breakdown of nerve cells results in zero control over muscle movement. The rare medical disorder can be treated by a drug called Zolgensma approved by the US in 2019, which is not available in India though. The drug costs a whopping Rs 16 crore, including import duty and GST on medicine which amounts to Rs 6 crore.

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Her parents, Priyanka and Mihir Kamat, had written on social media about their child's fight with a debilitating ailment, leading to fundraising as well as appeals to the Union government to waive import duty and GST on medicines.

Teera's parents had said that 23% import duty and 12% GST added Rs 6 crore to the cost of Rs 16 crore that the treatment entails. BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, on February 1, had written to the Centre requesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to waive off import duty and GST on the medicine, to which the Centre responded in affirmative and waived off all the taxes on the import of the life-saving drug. Fadnavis then took to Twitter to thank the prime minister. 

The crowdfunding was done via ImpactGuru.com through which nearly Rs 15 crores have been raised from across ten countries -  India, The USA, Australia, Canada, Singapore, Germany, Malaysia, Qatar, Ireland and Netherlands. Around 84% of donation has come from India while the remaining have come from other nations.

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A special note of gratitude has been issued on Instagram from Teera, her family and the team which is behind the crowdfunding,  thanking Finance Ministry, PM Modi, Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray among others for coming to the rescue of ailing Teera.

(image credits: PTI/representational purpose)