The 31-year-old tourist from England, a trained nurse by profession, returned to India the very next year and began her work in a house donated by a German organisation. The unit, in a bungalow on a 10-cottah plot near Barisha in South 24 Parganas, was named the Rehabilitation Centre For Children (RCFC). And for the next 26 years, till her death in December 1998, RCFC was Webb's first love and concern.

RCFC was registered in 1974 and its first beneficiary was Gopal from Siliguri, who had lost a foot. Webb gave him an artificial foot.The centre, which celebrated its 26th birthday on April 24, 1999, offers free services such as child immunisation and distributes orthopaedic aids and appliances to poor handicapped children. Initially, the patients were brought to Calcutta for corrective surgery. But as more and more children approached RCFC fortreatment, Webb felt the need for expanding the infrastructure. In 1981, she set up separate units for surgery, physiotherapy and for providing orthopaedic aids and appliances.

In 1983, a mobile aids workshop manufacturing calipers, braces, artificial limbs, surgical shoes, crutches and wheelchairs was set up. This programme is subsidised by the West Bengal government, said Nandini Ghosh, a social welfare officer at RCFC.

The operation theatre has 17 beds where patients are allowed to stay for 15 days before being shifted to the residential block, said another social welfare officer, Keka Roy.

RCFC runs a child development centre where 45-50 children in the age group of 4-14 years study during the post-operative months. The residential block can accommodate 65-90 children at a time.

Every month, the centre funds three cases of external fixators to cure polio patients (costing Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 per case) and fixes iliazarov apparatus to rectify the imbalance in the pelvic limb of two patients(costing Rs 7,000 per case).

Besides treating cases of deformities resulting from nutritional deficiencies and post-burn contracture, RCFC also organises X-ray clinics every Thursday, immunisation programmes for pregnant women every Sunday and an outdoor clinic till 12 noon every Thursday & Saturday. It also organises a polio vaccination camp on Sundays, said Roy.

RCFC spends Rs 35-40 lakh annually. Grants are received from individuals, the Centre and several foreign agencies, including Unicef. The children are given vocational training in terracotta, pottery making, cane work, basket weaving and tailoring. A non-residential vocational training programme in computers will be started soon, said RCFC president Neerja Chand.

``We plan more integrated education programmes in all the districts of West Bengal where there are several handicapped children. As Jane used to say, we will be happy if nobody needs our help, but this will not come to India before long,'' Chand said.

``Our aim is to fulfil Jane'smission of serving handicapped children from the downtrodden sections of society,'' said RCFC secretary Chitra Choudhury. A laudable mission indeed.