Gurugram, Feb 25 : Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday inaugurated the 'Savera' programme, aimed at early detection and prevention of breast cancer, a growing concern among women.

He emphasised that this groundbreaking initiative is the first of its kind in the country, focusing on detecting breast cancer in its early stages.

Under the 'Savera' programme, the help of visually impaired women will be taken for screening of breast cancer.

Furthermore, he expressed his intention to expand this programme to other districts of the state following its successful implementation.

In the first phase, this programme will be implemented in the Civil Hospital of Sector-10 of Gurugram, the Polyclinic of Sector-31 and the Primary Community Center of Wazirabad village in Gurugram.

Experts said that cancer is a disease that is diagnosed late, sometimes it is detected in stage 2, stage-3 and sometimes even stage-4 and it affects different parts of the body. Similarly, breast cancer is also one of those cancers that mostly occurs in women living in cities.

"Undoubtedly, help of disabled women are being taken in the 'Savera' programme as these individuals possess remarkable qualities, particularly their heightened sense of touch. They will utilise this ability to effectively screen for breast cancer," the CM said.

He further said that visually impaired people have natural tactile sensitivity. The importance of this ability has been understood, tested and used by people associated with the medical world.

While sharing information about the steps being taken by the government for the prevention of cancer, the Chief Minister said that National Cancer Institute - AIIMS has been established in Jhajjar district which has 1,000 beds. Similarly, he informed that Atal Cancer Care Center has been established in Ambala district for the treatment of cancer patients and cancer treatment and research is also being done in PGIMM, Rohtak.

The programme was initiated by the Medanta Foundation in collaboration with the Health Department in Gurugram

"Most cases of breast cancer occur in advanced stages. Due to its increasing incidence, timely detection, diagnosis and treatment are of utmost importance. It is our responsibility to empower our patients to take care of their own health. At Medanta, we continuously innovate and innovate. Savera campaign is a step in this direction," said Pankaj Sahni, Group CEO & Director, Medanta.

He informed that after the introduction of the 'Tactile Breast Examination' (TBE) system in India six years ago, visually impaired women were given training on breast diseases and their examination at NAB India Center for Blind Women and Disability Studies. After which they were provided clinical internship for three months under the guidance of Kanchan Kaur at the Breast Clinic of Medanta Gurugram.

/IANS