Haryana Government Allocates Rs 68.42 Crore For Cancer Patients, To Provide Monthly Pension Of Rs 2,500

The Haryana government has set aside a separate annual budgetary allocation of ₹ 68.42 crores to grant Stage-3 and Stage-4 cancer patients throughout the state a monthly pension of ₹2,500.

The move follows an earlier statement of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar that cancer patients will be granted monthly pensions. Further, they can avail of this benefit even if they receive other advantages like old age pensions or social security pension schemes.

Empowering Cancer Patients

When CM Khattar met with the families of cancer patients in May, he assured them that the state government, in its power, would do everything to assist them. He stated that patients with a family income of up to ₹ three lakhs per year would be eligible for this support, reported the Business Standard.

Even if they participate in other old-age or social security pension programmes, cancer patients would continue to get a monthly supplementary pension of ₹2,500, said the official statement released on Friday.

The Public Financial Management System (PFMS) will enable direct pension transfers to patients' bank accounts. Income verification of the patients would be conducted with Parivar Pehchan Patra (Family ID) to guarantee that the genuine beneficiaries receive the plan benefit.

It added that a committee from the district's Civil Surgeon's Office would check the paperwork, and the beneficiary shall get the stated benefits while alive. Furthermore, Tripura used to be the only state in the nation to provide Stage-3 cancer patients with the monthly financial help of ₹ 1,000.

India's Battle With Cancer

According to the cancer registry data, India sees about 8,00,000 new cancer cases yearly. According to a JCO Global Oncology report, the number of cancer cases in India rose at an average yearly rate of 1.1-2 per cent between 2010 and 2019. As per the report, cancer-related fatalities also increased nationwide at a rate of 0.1 to 1.0 per cent on average during the same period.

As per the study, India had 1,392,179 cancer patients in 2020. It added that the breast, lung, mouth, cervix, uterus, and tongue were the five most common sites for the illness.

"Cancer treatment is expensive and often exhausts large amount of family income. Financial assistance of this kind will help India battle with cancer and provide relief to many," said Shreya G, a cancer survivor from Maharashtra. The benefits should be extended to children and other young populations so that all age groups reap the benefits of the scheme, she added.

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