Cervical cancer is less of a medical challenge than a public health failure. Despite being preventable and slow to progress, it remains a major cause of cancer deaths among Indian women, with rural areas bearing the highest mortality due to gaps in access and execution.
According to national cancer estimates, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women in India. Every year, there are about 120,000 new cases and more than 75,000 deaths from the disease. GLOBOCAN 2008 data showed that India is responsible for almost 15.2 per cent of all cervical cancer deaths worldwide.
This burden isn’t shared equally. According to time-trend data from the National Cancer Registry Programme (1982–2005), the number of cases has gone down in cities, but it is still very high in rural areas, where women are often diagnosed at later stages. This drives up the death rate in Indian villages because treatment of advanced cancer is more difficult, expensive, and less effective.
This gap between urban and rural areas is key to understanding why cervical cancer continues to kill people even though there have been national programs and clinical guidelines for decades.
The biology of the disease makes the situation particularly worrying. Cervical cancer usually develops slowly, progressing from precancerous changes to invasive disease over 10 to 20 years, as outlined in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Comprehensive Cervical Cancer Control guidelines. This long, silent phase should allow ample opportunity for screening and early treatment. Yet in India, screening rates remain low, and many cases are detected only after symptoms appear, a trend reflected in population-based cancer registry data from the Indian Council of Medical Research.
Limited access to screening
India has a defined set of rules and guidelines for cervical cancer screening. According to the national portal for control of noncommunicable diseases (NCD), as of July 20, 2025, the Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (upgraded primary healthcare centres) had screened 101.8 million women aged 30 and above under the population-based NCD programme of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The programme targets women between 30 and 65 years and primarily uses Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA), conducted by trained health workers at sub-health centres and primary health centres.
The health ministry said that Accredited Social Health Activists find women who are at risk in the community using 'Community-Based Assessment Checklist' forms and get them to come in for screening. The National Health Mission gives States and Union territories funds to run awareness campaigns for National Cancer Awareness Day and World Cancer Day. These campaigns are supported by print, electronic and social media outreach.