Health Minister's Cancer Patients' Fund

During the last three years an amount of INR 11.40 crore has been released to the cancer patients under the Health Minister’s Cancer Patient Fund within the scheme Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN).

The financial assistance upto INR one lakh to the cancer patients is provided by the Regional Cancer Centres/Government Hospitals concerned through the revolving fund placed at their disposal. The cases of financial assistance above INR one lakh are referred by the Hospitals to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare for providing funds from the Central Funds.

 

Financial assistance is provided to the patients below poverty line suffering from cancer and undergoing treatment in Government Hospitals and any of the 27 Regional Cancer Centres. Recommendations of the elected representatives are also taken into account while sanctioning financial assistance provided to patients who fulfil the prescribed conditions.

The above information was given by India's Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad, in the Parliament on 27th March, 2012.

Meanwhile cancer remains a subject of major concern, as the tobacco use in India in various forms is still common. One can find vendors in their small wooden shops parked on roadsides selling cigarettes, and tobacco products in small sachets. This is a more common sight in northern India, even in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.

On the ground level, as the revenue-conscious governments increase tax on tobacco products to generate revenue and indirectly control tobacco use, the mass awareness and advocacy about tobacco's harmful effects are far less inadequate. The aggressive marketing by tobacco products manufacturers goes on unabated and the uninformed gullible public gets trapped in the habit of tobacco consumption.

The victim in this vicious circle are the poor sections of the society, known to be as much a victim of tobacco use and cancer, ruining their economy, health and the future. Such low funds announced allocated for the poor victims of cancer are only a drop in the ocean.

What the governments need to do is launch a nationwide aggressive education and awareness drive for the masses about the harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol as causative factors of cancer?