Cancer: the hospital providing jobs to keep its poverty stricken patients in treatment

Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (CCHRC) is a cancer hospital with a difference. It provides free food and accommodation to its patients during their regular treatment—already a rarity in India, where public hospitals often charge patients with cancer for meals and a bed, as well as tests. But it also provides ad hoc employment to patients, and sometimes their carers, many of whom belong to indigenous communities and marginalised groups.Located on the outskirts of Silchar, in the Barak Valley of India’s north eastern state of Assam, CCHRC is a non-profit hospital established in 1997. Supported by the National Rural Health Mission, a government initiative to deliver affordable and accessible healthcare through community involvement, the 150 bed site provides comprehensive cancer care to daily wage workers, specifically to those working on tea plantations. This is an underserved and hard-to-reach section of Indian society, living in a flood prone region and…
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