Supreme Court flags fragmented cancer data; asks 19 States, UTs to notify disease
Published: August 11, 2026 03:49 PM IST
Updated: August 11, 2026 03:59 PM IST
The absence of mandatory cancer reporting in India has resulted in fragmented data, inadequate surveillance, policy paralysis, and significant disparities.
In India, cancer is considered a rapidly growing health crisis, and it is said that one in every nine Indians will develop cancer at some point in their life. Tripura was the first state in India to declare cancer as a ‘notifiable disease’. This means that public and private hospitals in the state will submit data on cancer-diagnosed patients to the government to help map regional patterns, enabling screening programmes and better treatment.
In August last year, a Parliamentary Panel had recommended declaring cancer a notifiable disease across the country. So far, 17 of 36 states and Union Territories have done the same, including Kerala. Now, the Supreme Court has asked the remaining 19 to do the same.
A doctor’s PIL
In December last year, the court had issued notices and sought responses from the Centre and all states and UTs on declaring cancer a notifiable disease. This was following a public interest litigation (PIL) matter filed by renowned doctor Anurag Srivastava, the former head of the Department of Surgical Disciplines at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.
In his plea, Srivastava highlighted failure on the part of the Union health ministry and the states to declare cancer a notifiable disease across India. “The continued non-notification of cancer, despite its alarming and escalating burden in India, amounts to grave abdication of the State’s constitutional duty under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, as it denies uniform treatment to similarly-situated citizens and undermines their fundamental right to health and a life with dignity,” he said, also making the National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research a party to the PIL.
Problem with absence of reporting
The plea says absence of mandatory reporting has led to fragmented data, poor surveillance and a “policy paralysis” in addressing India’s growing cancer epidemic. The petition has also urged the establishment of a unified, real-time digital cancer registry akin to the CoWIN platform launched during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The absence of uniform notification has also created stark disparities in cancer surveillance, resulting in delayed diagnosis, higher treatment costs and poor patient outcomes. Patients in many states are frequently diagnosed only at advanced stages, where curative treatment becomes ‘difficult, expensive or impossible’.
Additional problems
According to the PIL, in addition to the existing crisis, there is also the growing menace of unscientific and unverified alternative cancer treatments, such as the widely-circulated claim of Gomutra (cow urine) as a cure for cancer.
“An RTI filed before the Rashtriya Ayurveda Sansthan revealed that no scientific research has ever established Gomutra as an effective therapy for cancer. Yet, due to lack of regulation and public awareness, patients continue to fall prey to such misleading claims, resulting in delayed treatment and preventable deaths,” the plea said.