Counting cancer: On making cancer a notifiable disease in India

📌 Summary:

• Context: Telangana became the 17th State to make cancer a notifiable disease, even though cancer is NOT a notifiable disease at the national level (the Health Ministry restricts notification to communicable diseases)
• Core argument: The Centre must make cancer notifiable nationwide to fix India's cancer-data deficit
• Existing tools are inadequate: Population-Based and Hospital-Based Cancer Registries cover only ~10-16% of the population, skewed toward urban, government healthcare settings; much private-sector care data is not uniformly captured
• Key data: The WHO-affiliated Global Cancer Observatory projects cases rising from 1.41 million (2022) to 2.46 million (2045) — an increase of over 74% — driven by longer lifespans, ageing demographics, and changes in lifestyle and diet
• Causal chain: no notification → incomplete registries → weak evidence base → inability to design a national cancer-control programme and targeted information, education and communication (IEC)
• Institutional backing: the ICMR's National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (now ICMR-NINE) recommended notifiable status years ago
• Counter-point addressed: a jump in recorded cases after notification is not a liability but part of building an evidence-based response
• Solution: the Centre should learn from the 17 States and make cancer a notifiable disease nationally

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 Governance and Health (public-health data systems, Centre-State health governance, evidence-based policymaking)

📝 Prelims Facts:

• Health is a State subject; disease notification is currently mandated mainly for communicable diseases
• The Global Cancer Observatory (GLOBOCAN) is affiliated to the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
• ICMR-NCDIR has been renamed ICMR-NINE

🔑 Key Term: Notifiable disease — a disease that, by law, must be reported to government health authorities upon diagnosis.