258

CHAPTER XIV,
of dealing with the large number of new-comers attracted by oppor-
tunities for employment.
Employers’ Efforts.
In the first two cases medical facilities have not expanded with
anything like the necessary rapidity To meet the needs of the increased
populations, and in most centres the civil hospitals and dispensaries
and the municipal medical institutions are incapable of serving more
than a proportion of those in their vicinity. This position has been
relieved in certain areas by the assumption on the part of employers
of responsibility for the provision of medical aid for their own employees.
Some of the jute mills on the Hooghli, for example, have provided ad-
mirably planned medical organisations ; these are used not only by the
employees and their families, but by large numbers of persons uncon-
nected with the industry. We have seen nothing in India to excel
the medical organisation and hospital equipment provided by the Angus
Jute Mill Company for their workers, and special tribute must be
paid to the management of this industrial concern for their work in
regard to medical attention and welfare. Many employers, whose
industrial concerns were within reach of municipal and Government
hospitals, have also made provision, often on a generous scale, for their
own labour forces. Others have instituted small dispensaries attached
to their works, sending patients suffering from serious illness to the
local Government or municipal hospitals. In such cases the firm
may either give a substantial annual donation to the hospital or pay
the hospital charges of all its employees admitted for treatment. Still
other industrial concerns have made no medical provision of any kind
for their workers, their contention being that the whole responsibility for
the provision of such services should properly lie with the municipalities
or local bodies concerned. We believe that those employers who have
taken a more humanitarian view have found that their action has had
valuable effects on the efficiency of their establishments. Many of the
medical organisations in industrial compounds are worthy of great praise
and are clearly responsible for a considerable increase in the health and
happiness of the workers and their families.

Medical Facilities in New Areas.

As regards enterprises of the third category, which pioneer
in areas hitherto undeveloped, such as the Tata Iron and Steel Company
at Jamshedpur and the Burma Corporation at Namtu, we are of opinion
that, at least in the initial stage, the responsibility for medical aid
must rest with the industry. It would obviously be impossible for either
Government or a district board to accept immediate responsibility for
medical and health facilities for a large newly transported population
of this kind. This fact has been fully recognised in the two cases
we have instanced, where large hospitals with generous medical
and nursing staffs and equipment have been provided at the entire
cost of the industries. Similar instances came to our notice in other
parts of India.