India needs to take care, ease the pain

Caring for a loved one with a terminal illness becomes an overwhelming physical and emotional struggle. For an overwhelming number of families, it is also a financial ordeal. Globally, WHO data shows 56.8 mn people need palliative care. Only about 14% receive it. In India, 7-10 mn require such care every year, but fewer than 4% access it. A new Aiims study, 'Building Palliative Care Capacity in North India: A Multicenter Approach', underscores how thousands endure avoidable pain because palliative care is still misunderstood (often reduced to 'end-of-life care'), under-used, and poorly integrated into healthcare.

This is a critical gap, since India's demographic shift is accelerating. Close to 19,500 Indians turn 60 every day. This cohort, larger than Japan's population, will increasingly live with cancer, dementia, organ failure or chronic pain. For them, palliative care can help them sleep better, breathe easier and retain dignity. India has a National Programme for Palliative Care. But without a dedicated budget, its impact is limited to well-meaning documents and pilot initiatives. Private providers have stepped in, sensing demand. But at prices out of reach for most and concentrated in urban India.

Yet, progress is possible: training doctors and nurses in pain relief, symptom management and communication reduces patient distress and cuts unnecessary hospitalisations. What India needs now is political will and stronger systems. District-level palliative services, better availability of essential medicines and proper funding for building a care system that supports every Indian who needs it - availability of high-value service for those who can afford it, as well as for those for whom good care is financially still out of reach.