Socio-Demographic and Reproductive Risk Factors for Cervical Cancer in Rural India

India accounted for a quarter of both the world’s estimated cervical cancer burden of 529,000 cases and 275,000 deaths in 2008 (Ferlay et al., 2010). Cervical cancer is the most frequent primary site of cancer among Indian women with the estimated age standardized cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates of 27 and 15 per 100,000 women, respectively in 2008 (Ferlay et al., 2010). The age standardized cervical cancer incidence rates range from 9 to 40 per 100,000 women in various regions of India (Sankaranarayanan et al., 2008). Furthermore, India shows some of the highest rates of cervical cancer worldwide, especially among rural populations such as the south Indian Dindigul district in Tamilnadu state (Rajkumar et al., 2000; Swaminathan et al., 2009a). It is currently believed that the persistent infection with one of the 15 oncogenic types of Human papilloma virus (HPV) is the central and necessary cause of almost all cervical cancers and its precursors, cervical intra epithelial neoplasia (CIN). A proportion of CIN, if not detected and