Life, actually

It is ironic, that even as we tout our ability to ensure that people with cancer live longer and better, those diagnosed with cancer continu...

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It is ironic, that even as we tout our ability to ensure that people with cancer live longer and better, those diagnosed with cancer continue to pay a price.

On a recent visit to India, Prof. Tom Shakespeare, one of Britain’s leading bioethicists and social scientists, observed,“The major problems for disabled people are caused by society, not by their bodies” and that appropriate responses from society must always include “social support and social inclusion in education, employment, housing and all the other areas of life”. He went on to argue that, “Above all, strong civil rights laws are needed to ensure equality for all”. It may surprise readers to know that in India, people with cancer face discrimination as do people with visible disabilities.

In the US, thanks to successful lobbying, the attention of legislators was drawn to the fact that people living with cancer needed protection under the law as they often faced discrimination when returning to the work place. Not only were they dismissed or not hired, but they were demoted, denied promotion, transferred and deprived of benefits.

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Subsequently, in 1990, four federal laws were passed to provide some job protection to cancer survivors: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Federal Rehabilitation Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act. These Acts offered protection to those who faced employment discrimination because they were “regarded as having a disability”. The latter is particularly significant for, to quote from a judgement handed out by the US Supreme Court Justice William Brennan in a case related to discrimination at the work place in 1987, “… society’s accumulated myths and fears about disability and disease are as handicapping as are the physical limitations that flow from actual impairment.” In the US today, under federal law and most state employment discrimination laws, an employer can not treat a cancer survivor differently from other workers in job-related activities solely because he or she has had cancer. What makes the ADA stand out is that it also offers protection to members of the family. For example, employers are required to provide “reasonable accommodation” to the spouse of a person undergoing cancer treatment.

Unfortunately, in India, no such federal or state level protection is available for cancer survivors. Those who work are left to the mercy of their employers and co-workers many of whose conduct and decisions are coloured by the myth that a person with cancer can not perform adequately at work. At a time when one needs the maximum emotional, social and financial support, people with cancer are isolated and deprived of economic security.

When one considers that in India the incidence of cancer occurs largely in the age group 35-64 years one can not overemphasise the need to draw up legislation and pass laws that ensure that those fighting a medical battle against cancer do not have to face another struggle at the end of their treatments when they return to work or try to obtain it. It is surely time for us to ensure that those who survive cancer as well as their families are given the protection they deserve. Let us ring in the New Year on this note. Otherwise, all claims of cure will ring hollow.

The writer is a cancer survivor. She is founder-president, CanSupport