New Delhi: Eight-year-old cancer patient Habiba Khatun huddled with her mother against the cold on the floor of a disused bus.

Khatun, who has a malignant tumour in her right eye, has been sharing the bus with about 30 other patients for a week while she receives treatment at the state-run All India Institute of Medical Sciences. “We know this bus is not the best place to live. But we are poor and what option do we have?” Khatun’s mother asked, as her daughter, who has undergone 12 chemotherapy sessions since she was two, sat nearby.