Surging Cancer, Costly Treatment and Wrecking of Family Finances Reflections from the Punjabs Malwa Belt

Surging cancer cases in Punjab's Malwabel thas become one of the most serious concerns for the policy makers and stakeholders. Many studies showed that the people in productive age group of 30 65 years were suffering from this dreaded disease. Economic and social costs of cancer to the individual family society are also enormous and run into crore of rupees that include direct costs out of pocket expenditures while seeking treatment and indirect costs reduced labour supply, production and productivity . The present study is modest attempt to study incidence of cancer and patterns in Punjab's Malwa belt how the cancer patients families bear high treatment costs and how the high cost of treatment wreck the family finances. The study is primarily based on the primary data. Out of 1172 cancer suffering rural households located in 21 villages of Fazilka District of Punjab, 154 cancer patients were randomly selected and surveyed in the last six months of 2021. Wheat, cotton and paddy in order of importance found to be main crops grown in these villages. Dr. Mohan Lal "Surging Cancer, Costly Treatment and Wrecking of Family Finances: Reflections from the Punjab's Malwa Belt" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-7 | Issue-3 , June 2023, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/papers/ijtsrd57485.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com.com/humanities-and-the-arts/economics/57485/surging-cancer-costly-treatment-and-wrecking-of-family-finances-reflections-from-the-punjabs-malwa-belt/dr-mohan-lal