Power of touch: how blind women are helping detect breast cancer in India

A scheme training visually impaired women to use their heightened tactile abilities benefits patients and examiners

The most satisfying part of Ritika Maurya's work is reassuring the anxious. Women fear coming for breast examinations," says Maurya. What if a lump is found in my breast? Will that be the end of my life? These are some of the questions that haunt them all the time."

Maurya is, she says, still learning to be good at this". As a blind child, she had a sheltered upbringing with protective parents who rarely let her leave the house.