95 Million Women Screened For Cervical Cancer Under National Programme: Centre (image: Unsplash/Angiola Harry)

New Delhi: More than 95 million women have been screened for cervical cancer under National Programme for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) till March 18 this year, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday (March 25). It was while responding to question raised by AIADMK MP M. Thambidurai, Minister presented the State-wise data of women between the ages 15 and 50 years who have been screened for cervical cancer.

“As per National NCD Portal as on 18th March, 2025 out of an eligible population of 25.16 crore women above the age of 30 years, 9.51 crore (37.7%) have been screened for cervical cancer,” Minister said. Some of the states which has recorded highest number of screenings include Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.

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Screening of common NCDs including common cancers such as oral, breast and cervical is an integral part of service delivery under Ayushman Arogya Mandirs.

With the aim of mitigating the increasing burden of NCDs such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancer, diabetes an chronic respiratory diseases, the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Disease (NP-NCD) was launched by the Department of Health and Family Welfare in 2010. As per the report, NCDs estimated to account for around 60% of all deaths.

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The major focus of the programme is to prevent and control the diseases through strengthening infrastructure, human resource development, health promotion, early diagnosis, management and referral. Under NP-NCD, 677 NCD district-level clinics, 187 District Cardiac Care Units, 266 District Day Care Centres and 5,392 NCD Community Health Centre-level clinics have been set up.

When Rajya Sabha MP also inquired about the measures taken by the Government to promote cervical cancer vaccination for girls/women, Minister answered that Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine for cervical cancer is not a part of the Universal Immunization Programme (UIP).