Dr. V Shanta’s contribution to cancer treatment in India has no parallel

Dr. Viswanathan Shanta

When the history of healthcare in India is written there will be a special chapter dedicated to the life of Dr. Viswanathan Shanta. The pioneering Oncologist and Chairperson of the Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai, passed away on the 19^th of January at the age of 93. Over the last 7 decades few have done as much to make Cancer care accessible and affordable to all as the diminutive Doctor from Chennai.

Hailing from a family that produced two Nobel laureates, Sir C.V. Raman and Subramanyam Chandrasekhar, Dr. Shanta initially trained to be an Obstetrician and Gynecologist because as she herself said, "that is what women doctors did then."

But her life changed when as a house surgeon she was posted in the Cancer Ward of The Government Hospital and met Dr. S. Krishnamurthy, son of the legendary Dr. Muthulakshmi Reddy founder of the Women's Indian Association and the Cancer Institute at Adyar.

She was inspired by his ideals of service and decided to join the Institute the year after she completed her MD.

In 1955 when Dr.Shanta joined the Cancer Institute, it was little more than a nursing home with just 12 beds and minimal infrastructure. Many of the facilities were in thatched roof huts.

Decade after decade and brick by brick, she built one of India's finest Medical Institution’s where almost 60% of patients are treated free of charge. And she led from the front, seeing patients in her OPD until she was in her nineties.

As many who worked with her attested, she was a hard taskmaster but was always willing to put in the hard yards herself to set an example. Each year the Cancer Institute now sees over 150,000 patients from all over the country and some from abroad too.

Funding was always a problem for such charitable centers and Dr.S hanta by her sheer personality managed to get corporates as well as eminent personalities to offer generous support.

But for such a huge cause that she had taken up and with those thronging the Centre for treatment never ceasing, it was always a challenge.

Though Dr. Shanta was honored with the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and the Padma Vibushan by the Government, financial support from both the Central and State Governments to the Cancer Institute was meagre. At one point she was told by the Govt to consider shutting down and at another stage there was pressure from the State Government to return the land allotted to the Institute.

Dr. Shanta was never once to mince words. At the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of the Institute she said,"If this Institution had come so far it was the effort of the team and the benefactors who supported it. It is not because of Governments but despite them."

At our last meeting over a year ago, she told me that she had been trying to get additional land behind the Institute from IIT Madras, for expanding the Institute.

She said she had requested the Central Govt and had been following up for years but there had been no response. "They have over 1000 acres she said. We need only 4 or 5 acres to expand facilities for our patients," she despaired, adding, ‘there is so much work still to be done.”

At one point she was told by the Govt to consider shutting down and at another stage there was pressure from the State Government to return the land allotted to the Institute

A strong believer in Preventive Oncology she never tired of stressing about how screening and early detection would make Cancer largely a curable disease. Her single-minded devotion to the cause of Cancer Treatment also saw her receive International recognition in the form of the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

She lived in a simple apartment on the top floor of the Institute building.  After recovering from a stroke a few years ago she continued her work with as much dedication as before.

Building Institutions in a country like India calls for remarkable perseverance and a stubbornness that refuses to give up in the face of insurmountable odds. Dr.Shanta was possessed of both in ample measure. Thousands of patients are alive today because more than 60 years ago, a frail lady believed it was possible.