New Delhi, May 21 (IANS). Deputy Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) under the Union Health Ministry, L. Swasticharan said on Thursday that the Central Government is committed to eliminate all the problems to deal with childhood cancer. Its objective is that all the affected children can live a healthy future.
Speaking at a workshop organized by the Indian Childhood Cancer Initiative (ICCI), Swasticharan said childhood cancer is the easiest target for government programmes. He said that especially in children’s cancer, increasing the survival rate of patients is easier than in other diseases.
This workshop was organized with the aim of preparing a roadmap for the ‘National Childhood Cancer Programme’.
The Deputy Director General suggested that lessons should be learned from the models developed in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Self-help groups have been included in these models and economic assistance models linked to ‘Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana’ have been used.
Swasticharan also emphasized on the post-survival support that cancer patients receive.
He said that all our best efforts to cure a patient should not end with his survival, but should continue even further. We must take up the task of providing support to cancer survivors by involving the community and through multi-party collaboration. To deal with childhood cancer, early detection is most important.
He said that this is an important issue as a ‘notifiable disease’ (information about which is necessary). We are still working closely with ICMR on this topic. Our aim is to ensure that no patient is left behind.
Bishnu Giri, technical officer for cancer control in WHO’s South-East Asia region, said that the expenditure on childhood cancer is neither an unnecessary expenditure nor a waste of money, but for every dollar spent on this disease, we benefit economically by 3 dollars. This benefit is even greater in developing countries. Apart from this there are social benefits also.
He suggested that a sustainable economic system should be created using funding sources to improve childhood cancer care and outcomes.
ICCI Governing Council member, Ramandeep Arora said the clinical facilities and medical expertise are now available in the country. Now just a little help is needed from the government so that the scope of its results can be further expanded at the ground level.
He further said that the aim is to launch a ‘National Childhood Cancer Programme’, and sign an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) with WHO, under which India will be given priority as a partner country. This will prove to be even more helpful in bringing global best practices and technologies related to cancer treatment in the country.
Abhishek Kunwar, National Professional Officer for NCDs at WHO India, said that we should learn from the NCD programs already running. We do not need to start a new program for any particular disease.
In September 2022, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare in the Rajya Sabha, in its 139th report titled ‘Cancer Care Planning and Management: Prevention, Diagnosis, Research and Affordability of Cancer Treatment’, formally acknowledged the need for a specific policy framework for childhood cancer in India.
Ramandeep Arora, cancer specialist at Max Hospital, said the report said the government agreed with the idea that the ministry should work towards creating a ‘National Child Cancer Comprehensive Management Policy’ that would include early diagnosis, shared care, and integrated care for childhood cancer in public health centres.
This workshop was organized by ICCI. ICCI is a national, multi-stakeholder platform launched in 2023 to collaborate and engage in policy making to strengthen childhood cancer care in India.
According to ICCI and other studies, about 75,000 new cases of childhood cancer are reported in India every year, and their survival rate is about 60 percent.
–IANS
DKM/ABM
