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CHAPTER XXIIL—HEALTH AND WELFARE IN PLANTATIONS.
Health Conditions and Health Statistics.

The health of the worker in plantation areas is a question
of primary importance to all concerned. The plantation manager
rarely fails to realise that, in carrying out the duty of conserving his
workers’ health, he is also serving his own best interests. Not
only does a high morbidity rate handicap production and reduce earn-
ing capacity, but experience has shown that it is easier to attract
labour to, and keep labour on, a healthy garden than an unhealthy
one where, for instance, malaria is rife. The necessity for the accurate
maintenance of records of sickness and mortality is less generally
realised. Without these it is difficult to determine variations in health
at different periods and between different areas and populations, or to
estimate the effects of expenditure on prevention of disease. The
methods of registration in India make it almost impossible to extract
birth and death rates for industrial workers from those of the general
population, but in the plantation areas we have been given records of
vital statistics for a number of individual estates. These show that,
generally speaking, the death and infantile mortality rates of planta-
tion populations are considerably lower than the corresponding rates of
the respective provinces as a whole. This seems to indicate that both
economic and general health conditions are of a higher standard than
those in the average rural or urban area. In Assam birth rates are
generally lower than might be expected, probably owing to omissions in
the registers ; we believe that, as and when accurate records are obtained,
the registered birth rates on the plantations will gradually rise above
the recorded provincial rates. No garden visited by us in Assam had a
registered death rate exceeding 36 per 1000, but under present regula-
tions, such rate must be at least 70 per 1000 before a garden can be
slassed as “ unhealthy ”. We consider that such a classification is un-
necessary, and that, apart altogether from these figures, continuous
attention should be directed to prevention of the causes of ill health and
mortality. In the estates of South India birth rates generally are consi-
erably higher than in Assam, probably as a result of more accurate
registration. Rather surprisingly, the infantile mortality rate showed
no corresponding increase. This variation, which may be due to the
lesser prevalence of malaria, cannot be attributed to better economic
conditions or superior physique. We recommend that all managers
should be required to maintain birth and death registers, and that by
nspection Government should ensure that these are reasonably accurate.

Physique, Nutrition and Dietary.

} Apart from the gardens where malaria and hookworm were
rife, the physique of plantation labourers and their families appeared to
us to be satisfactory, and the general standard is certainly higher than
that of the population of the recruiting areas. We were informed that
the physique of new recruits was frequently a matter of concern to garden
managers. who sometimes found it necessary to issue free food for several