According to them, the government does not understand the importance of palliative care or improving the quality of life of chronically ill patients, many of who are about to die. This involves not just helping with the physical pain, but also dealing with the psychological trauma. Bagai, who fought colon cancer, recalls being depressed during the course of her disease. “You are constantly afraid of dying… you need psychosocial support,” she says, adding that the importance of palliative care cannot be overemphasised.

Bagai says government intervention in cancer has to go beyond awareness, prevention and detection to include patient support. Rajagopal recommends training doctors and nurses in the whole discipline of palliative care including the use of morphine — not currently in medical syllabi — and creating more care centres around the country. At present, Kerala is the only state with a critical mass of such centres. The PIL requests that the government be ordered to put in place a National Palliative Care Policy for this purpose.

There is an urgency to the issue that the government appears to have missed. Severe, chronic pain is comes not only with cancer but also with other diseases. The case for making medical morphine easily available has been accepted globally. India’s foot-dragging has caused millions to suffer.