R., Ravi Kannan

Healthcare is broadly social and deeply personal, particularly with respect to a costly, high-mortality disease like cancer. Cancer can be emotionally and financially devastating for patients and their families, especially the poor. The problem is compounded in places like the North Eastern Region (NER) in India, a remote, “forgotten,” predominantly rural and agricultural border region where access to medical care is difficult. Even in the region’s leading state Assam, where cancer incidence is high amid a population of 35 million, the first cancer hospital was not opened until 1981. Later, a second, the Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre (CCHRC) was established in 1996, it was the initiative of a non-profit society of local citizens, funded by public philanthropy on land provided by government.

CCHRC would, however, expand into an innovative, widely admired, full-service cancer care facility after Indian surgical oncologist Dr. Ravi Kannan R. became hospital director in 2007, the first formally-trained oncologist to fill the position. It surprised many that Kannan, who previously headed the surgical oncology department in Adyar Cancer Institute, a major cancer institute in Chennai, would exchange a position in a big city for a small hospital in a remote part of the country. Kannan had a simple answer. It was where he was most needed.

Under Kannan’s leadership, CCHRC became a full-fledged comprehensive cancer hospital and research center. From a hospital with limited facilities when he came on board, it now has twenty-eight departments covering oncology, pathology, radiology, microbiology, epidemiology, tumour registry and palliative care, and other services and specializations. From a staff of only twenty-three, the hospital now employs 451 people.

Kannan saw from the beginning that it was not just a matter of having state-of-the-art cancer facilities. Patient compliance rate to treatment was at 28%. Patients came but did not continue their treatment due to such reasons as the difficulties of traveling long distances, the cost (including the loss of income of family caregivers), and resignation to the belief that the patient would never be cured. Clearly, the underlying reason was poverty. Thus, the hospital introduced such pro-poor initiatives as free treatment, food and lodging, adhoc employment for caregivers, and a homecare program. Hospital team members would travel long distances to train family members in pain management and palliative care, as well as provide free medicines. As a result, patient compliance rates rose to 70%. CCHRC now provides free or subsidized cancer care treatments to an average of 5,000 new patients annually, catering to approximately 20,000 poor patients for treatments and follow-ups. Kannan says, “No one should be denied access to treatment due to want of money.”

The hospital states its vision in these words: “We aim to become a state-of-the-art cancer center that will ensure that no individual develops a cancer that can be prevented, that no patient is denied appropriate cancer treatment for want of resources, that no patient dies in agony and indignity and that no family suffers treatment induced poverty and grief.” It is a clear, bold statement that the hospital translates into actual practice.

Kannan, now fifty-nine-years-old, has served the hospital for nearly seventeen years. He is particularly proud of the people around him who share his vision for the hospital, many of them young professionals attracted and inspired by his leadership. Self-sacrificing and quietly heroic, Kannan lives with his family in Assam and in this remote region continues to work without expectation of public recognition. Reiterating his mission, he says, “To be able to deliver inclusive health care and inclusive cancer care, you must have care available. You must have care that is equitable, accessible, and affordable.”

In electing Ravi Kannan R. to receive the 2023 Ramon Magsaysay Award, the board of trustees recognizes his devotion to his profession’s highest ideals of public service, his combination of skill, commitment, and compassion in pushing the boundaries of people-centered, pro-poor health care and cancer care, and for having built, without expectation of reward, a beacon of hope for millions in the Indian state of Assam, thus setting a shining example for all.

I bring greetings and warm wishes from India.

This recognition rightfully belongs to many, many people.

This belongs to the Cachar Cancer Hospital Society who dared to dream of such a facility over thirty years ago.

This belongs to all my 450 colleagues in Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre who have passionately believed in our cause and have tirelessly labored in seeing our shared dream of inclusive healthcare and cancer care become a reality for the people that we serve.

This belongs to our local communities including to our government officials and representatives who have reposed their trust in the process of creating Cachar Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in our little pocket of land in the state of Assam.

This belongs to the countless individuals and organizations across our great country of India and all across the world who have shown their steadfast commitment and support in the humble work that we do.

Most importantly, this belongs to the people we have treated, the individuals and their families, who have entrusted their lives in our hands without any reservations.

What we do in Silchar is not unique. There are several others who are engaged in similar work in healthcare and other fields who strive to improve the lot of our fellow men and women on this planet.

I believe that the Ramon Magsaysay Award recognizes all of our collaborative spirits and efforts.  I accept this Award on behalf of all of them.

As Bhupen Hazarika, an Assamese bard sang, “‘We’re in the same boat brother. If you tip one end, you gonna rock the other, it’s the same boat brother.'” All lives on this earth are so intimately linked to one another that we cannot afford to be exclusive.

An ancient Sanskrit verse goes thus: Ayam nijam paro veti ganana laghu chetasam, Udar charitanam tu vasudhaiv kutumbakam.  For the wise, the entire earth is one family.

The road to human happiness and fulfillment truly lies in holding every life on this planet sacred and worthy of our love in an all-inclusive spirit. People have given us their time, talents, and treasures not merely to help the sick regain their health but to give much-needed hope to the hopeless. Together, all of us can change the way we take care of sickness and suffering, promote universal health, and control of cancer and other diseases.

Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah, Sarve Santu Nir-Aamayaah | Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu, Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet | Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||

May everyone be happy, be free from all disease, see goodness and auspiciousness in all things, and may none be distressed. May everyone be at peace.

Let us each continue to make efforts both big and small to harness the goodness around us to better the conditions of everyone in need with faith that together, we can make a difference.

Thank you to the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation for this great encouragement that indeed together we can all make a difference.