The growth story of Indians has slowed down not stopped. The average life expectancy of Indians has gone up. Chronic diseases like diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cardiac events, and neoplasm have increased in incidence. Malaria, tuberculosis, malnutrition, and related infective diseases still haunt us. Nearly six lakh people died of cancer in 2010. The absolute numbers of deaths due to cancer are humongous.
Deaths due to cancer are more in illiterate rural India. The Indian continent is a conglomerate of disparate groups of people with different languages, customs, and rituals. Disparity of wealth and seeming contradictions abound in our life. Challenges of preventing and managing cancer beg for local solutions, based on accumulated information and wisdom. Yet, the approach to uniquely Indian situations, are generally extrapolations of the ‘standard of care’ from alien lands. For…
