At around 9, Aug. 8 -- 30 pm every night, a passenger train leaves Bathinda Junction in Punjab for Bikaner, Rajasthan. For most railway travellers, it is an ordinary overnight service. But for many families in Punjab's Malwa region, the train has a far more painful identity - the "Cancer Train".

The nickname emerged because a significant number of passengers travelling on the route are cancer patients heading to Bikaner for treatment. The roughly 325-kilometre journey provides an affordable way for patients, many from farming communities, to reach the Acharya Tulsi Regional Cancer Institute and Research Centre.

The train has become closely associated with the cancer burden in Punjab's Malwa belt, a region that has for years attracted at...