MEERA DOES NOT KNOW HER AGE. She believes she is between 35 and 40 years old. Her home is in Rajokri, in south-west Delhi, near the financial and technology hub of Gurugram. The area was once a village, and its more than 10,000 people still largely rely on farming for income. Meera and her family live below the poverty line.

For as long as she could remember, Meera always had a mild pain in her lower abdomen. She has lost count of the number of times she had visited the local doctor, who always gave her some paracetamol and told her she was fine.

“No one thought it was anything but a stomach ache,” she told me. “If I hadn’t had screening tests done, I would have continued to take stomach pills.”