Breast Cancer in Rural India: Analysis, Program, and Prevention

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the growing issue of breast cancer in rural India. It highlights the significant challenges faced by women in accessing primary healthcare services, including lack of awareness, poor infrastructure, and socioeconomic factors. The report examines the factors contributing to the rising incidence of breast cancer, such as lifestyle changes, reproductive factors, and cultural influences. It also details the development of a healthcare program aimed at addressing the issue, focusing on planning, implementation, and promoting awareness. The program emphasizes the importance of educating women about hygiene, sanitation, and breast self-examination to facilitate early detection and prevention. The report stresses the need for government involvement, collaboration with NGOs, and community engagement to ensure the program's effectiveness in improving women's health outcomes in rural India.

CRITICAL APPLICATION
PAPER

Introduction
Today, cancer is the major health issue which has highly affected physical as well as
mental health of people. It has been difficult for professionals to identify cancer in people. There
exist different types of cancer. India is the second most populated country in the world. Almost
its 60% of people lives in rural areas (Warner & et.al., 2016). The people are facing many health
issues. But in present time, breast cancer is the major health issue which has been a concern in
rural area. It has highly impacted on lives of women as they are not able to get proper primary
health services. There is high rise in number of cases of women suffering from breast cancer. It
has resulted in rise in number of deaths. Moreover, due to lack of awareness about prevention
methods women are not able to get primary care services.
This assignment focuses on providing a clear view on breast cancer in rural areas in
India. Also, it will describe how this issue can be prevented by implementing a health care
program and improving practices in providing primary care services to women. The report
throws light on the factors which is leading to rise in incidence of breast cancer cases among the
rural women. It will also include about the poor infrastructural operations and lack of ethical
standards in the professionals.
Rationale: The rural areas of India are not very well developed. Most of the people lives below
poverty line and are entirely dependent on government for fulfilment of their needs. Besides this,
the condition of women is worst in rural areas (Kastrati & et.al., 2016). They are not educated
and lives a very harsh life. Moreover, there is sudden increase in incidence rate of breast cancer
in women in rural areas. Thus, the implementation of health program will generate awareness
about primary care services among women. It will be useful in providing high quality and basic
care services to them. Furthermore, the program will provide a platform to cure breast cancer and
educating them.
Analysis of breast cancer with respect to Primary Healthcare aspect
A nation basic health care status depends on how well established their primary care
services are. It contains a framework through which basic and necessary care services are
provided to people. In India mostly, primary health centres are state owned. They are responsible
for performing different types of health care activities in rural areas. It laid a framework through
which overall primary goals and objectives are attained. The Indian public health care system is
funded and controlled by government (Möller & et.al., 2016). They are responsible for offering
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high quality care to people both in rural and urban areas. Also, health promotion programs and
campaign are organised by them. But in most part of nation health centres is not having
sufficient tools and equipment’s to provide treatment. There are many other factors such as
occupation, income level, health insurance, etc. (Sceneay & et.al., 2016). Apart from it, there is
very less participation of women in offering primary care services in rural areas. Moreover,
women are less educated in rural areas. it is because of poverty and not having a proper
educational infrastructure. Due to this, their mindset is not developed. Hence, there is lack of
awareness about health care programs or campaigns run by local authorities or state government.
In recent time there is high difference in incident rate of breast cancer in rural and urban
areas of India. The influence of western lifestyle and culture trends has increased gap between
women of rural and urban region. In report of NCRP, it has been stated that the rate ratio of
metro cities with comparison to other cities is different. In rural it is just 0.90 and in urban it
ranges between 1.48-2.23 and 1.89-2.98 (Kang & et.al., 2017). Another main factor of incidence
of breast cancer in India is difference in reproductive factor. In urban, women are having an
average of 2.1 children throughout their life whereas in rural it is 3.0. Alongside it, in rural areas
nulliparity and late age are most consistently observed risk factor for breast cancer. In similar
way, menstruating in early life is also high risk in rural women. In addition to it, having a late
menopause is observed in increase of developing breast cancer.
In a study it has been observed that there is 1.6% rise in incidence of breast cancer over
last 15 years in Mumbai (Li & et.al., 2017). The similar number was detected in rural areas. It is
expected that the population of urban area will increase up to 550 million till 2030. So, it will
create a burden on rise in number of cases of breast cancer. Also, till 2025, 2500 mean cases can
be listed as compared to 1300 in 2001-2005. Thus, this situation can be disastrous for Indian
rural sector women. Furthermore, in human development index it is shown that decrease in
cervical cancer is an offset in incidence of breast cancer. The main reason for this is shift in
lifestyle which is causing increase in incidence. The socio economic factor of Indian women is
different. In Indian culture women are bounded by society. So, there is huge different in culture
values and ethics. it varies according to religion and region. Consequently, education is another
driver which plays a significant role in rise of breast cancer.
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Development of program
There is a need for developing a program to address this issue in the rural regions of
India. Thus, the foremost component is to plan and design an outline for effective execution of
this program for optimizing the resources and cost-effectiveness.
Planning: This step consists of contacting all the government led healthcare institutions along-
with equal contribution from regulatory bodies like NGO's, charities and others (Welch & et.al.,
2016). Herein the focus is to build a channel between the women and the Indian healthcare
services. Nonetheless, promotional activities will be incorporated so that girls, women, elderly
from all ages group will be engaged so that modifications can be done at societal levels.
Implementation: Since the setup is rural, one must be careful in this stage as there might be
hesitations and awkwardness to do promotion and organizing small meetings for generation of
awareness in such taboo subjects such as cancer, monthly periods etc. Henceforth, it involves
formal training given to women from rural side to make them understand about hygiene,
sanitation and symptoms regarding such different types of cancer. The prime focus is to provide
basic knowledge about the breast self examination in preventing the onset of cancer. Along with,
timely interventions at private centres or meeting to be held by social workers and active
participants would be beneficial in imparting the complete education to prevent this.
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