March 22: There is a higher rate of occurrence of cancer among illiterate people than literate ones in Nepal, according to a study by Action Nepal, a non-governmental organisation working on tobacco control in Nepal. Forty six percent illiterate people contracted cancer caused by the consumption of tobacco products, says the study.    
In 2019, the organisation carried out a study on financial burden faced by patients seeking treatment for tobacco-induced cancer. Tobacco-induced cancer cases in people pursuing higher education stood at 1.9 percent. Sixteen percent of them sought treatment by selling off their properties including houses and land.    
Similarly, 27.2 percent bore treatment costs through their savings, and 60 percent took loans from their relatives. Tobacco-induced cancer has put life expectancy rate at 53.5 years of age, according to the study.

Three hundred tobacco-induced cancer patients were included in the study. Of them, 42.7 percent were dependent on agriculture as main source of income for treatment costs, 22.3 on trade, 11.7 on daily wages, and 8.7 each on government job and foreign employment.-- RSS