Cervical Cancer in India: The Cost of Ignoring a Preventable Tragedy

Cervical cancer persists in India not because solutions are missing, but because prevention is not routine.

Over 200 women die of cervical cancer in India every single day. For a disease that is both preventable and detectable early, this concentration points less to biology and more to systemic failure. 

(Photo: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Every eight minutes, an Indian woman dies of cervical cancer — a disease that should not kill at all. Few statistics expose the injustice of our health system more starkly. Cervical cancer is one of the most preventable cancers known to medicine, yet India continues to lose tens of thousands of women each year.

This is not because solutions are missing. India has the vaccine. India even has national screening programmes. What India does not have, however, is routine prevention.

Over 200 women die of cervical cancer in India every single day. Each year, 1.23 lakh women are newly diagnosed, and around 77,000 do not survive. India alone accounts for nearly two‑thirds of all cervical cancer cases and deaths in South‑East Asia. For a disease that is both preventable and detectable early, this concentration points less to biology and more to systemic failure. 

Awareness Without Action  

Few cancers generate as much public health discourse in India as cervical cancer does, yet few expose such glaring failures in translating talk into prevention. Awareness abounds, but action lags. Screening and vaccination coverage remain low, inconsistent, and geography‑dependent. A woman’s pincode often decides whether she lives or dies.  

The National Family Health Survey (NFHS)‑5 data shows only about one in five women aged 30-49 have ever undergone cervical cancer screening nationwide; coverage is even lower among rural women (1.7 percent) compared to their urban counterparts (2.2 percent), a disparity that is particularly concerning given evidence from the ICMR National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research, showing that rural women face a higher risk of developing cervical cancer due to delayed detection, limited access to screening, and weaker referral pathways.

While over 10 crore screenings occurred under the National Health Mission by mid‑2025, this covers just a fraction of eligible women aged 30-65 in the country. National figures mask stark divides: Tamil Nadu and Puducherry exceed 30-40 percent coverage, while states like Gujarat, Assam, West Bengal, and Arunachal Pradesh hover in single digits, with half of states and UTs below 1 percent. These are failures of infrastructure and governance, not of women’s choices.  

These gaps in screening are not merely statistical; they leave a visible imprint on outcomes. The accompanying map shows how cervical cancer deaths over the past decade are concentrated in a few high-burden states, with Uttar Pradesh alone accounting for over 40,000 deaths—an outcome shaped less by biology than by the uneven reach of preventive care.

The Missed Backbone of Prevention  

Ayushman Arogya Mandirs — formerly Health & Wellness Centres — were designed to be the backbone of preventive healthcare. With over 1.7 lakh centres operational nationwide, they are mandated to provide screening for cervical, breast and oral cancers. Yet outcomes remain uneven.

Screening is irregular, shaped by staff availability and competing priorities, and rarely guided by measurable coverage targets. Without accountability and monitoring, prevention risks becoming incidental rather than institutionalised.  

Screening can only save lives when backed by timely diagnosis and treatment. Yet, many primary health facilities lack referral pathways, systematic tracking of at-risk women identified through screening, and feedback loops from higher‑level health centres. Women fall through the cracks between detection and care. 

Meanwhile, India’s first indigenously developed Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Cervavac, offers a powerful tool for long‑term prevention. But rollout remains uneven, shaped by misinformation, stigma, and weak integration with adolescent health platforms. Vaccination without scale will not shift outcomes. Screening without referral is not prevention.  

Global Evidence, Local Inaction

The World Health Organisation reports that organised, good‑quality cervical cancer screening can reduce mortality by 80 percent or more. HPV vaccination is equally transformative: a Swedish cohort study found vaccination at ages 12-13 reduced invasive cervical cancer by 87 percent and pre-cancerous lesions by 97 percent.

Evidence from Denmark further underscores this impact: nationwide studies show that infections with the most cancer-causing HPV types, 16 and 18, have been virtually eliminated since the vaccine rollout began in 2008, providing protection even to unvaccinated women.

A Lancet modelling study estimated that achieving 90 percent HPV vaccination coverage could avert 61 million cervical cancer cases globally. Combining vaccination with even one or two lifetime screenings accelerates impact, producing 95-97 percent reduction in incidence in high‑burden settings like India.  

Cervical cancer persists in India not because solutions are missing, but because prevention has yet to become routine.

India has already solved the science and affordability challenge. What remains is a governance challenge: to institutionalise prevention as a non‑negotiable function of primary healthcare. Every eight minutes, a woman’s life is cut short by a disease we know how to prevent. The question is no longer about what works. The question is whether India will finally make prevention a matter of system, not chance.

(Urvashi Prasad is Former Director NITI Aayog and Senior Fellow Pahle India Foundation. She can be reached at @urvashi01. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)