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CHAPTER XXII.
the gardens of the group. In addition she would be responsible for the
development of child welfare work, although to ensure success in this
direction trained health visitors would also be necessary. We appreciate
the difficulty of obtaining women doctors, but successful beginnings have
been made elsewhere, and, if a sustained effort were made, we have no
doubt that in time suitable applicants would become available.

Sick Benefits.

On certain plantations the worker, when ill in hospital, is given
free food, and a gratuity is paid to a relation acting as sick attendant.
We recommend that the practice of giving free food be adopted in all
plantation hospitals. The gratuity might also be made generally appli-
cable, except where a central hospital with a nursing staff makes other
attendants unnecessary.
Maternity Benefit Schemes. ;
In many plantations it is already the practice to give maternity
benefit to women workers. In some cases a lump sum is given to the
mother after the child is born; in others an allowance is given for
4 to 8 weeks before and for 4 to 8 weeks after her confinement. In
one plantation in the Dooars the manager issues the benefit in
monthly instalments, and continues an allowance of Re.1 per month
for a period of 10 months, provided the child is brought by the
mother to the plantation hospital for inspection by the medical officer.
Representatives of the planters’ organisations gave it as their opinion
that legislation was unnecessary because the maternity allowances now
given voluntarily were sufficient. This may be so in some plantations ;
but in certain cases allowances are considerably below the average
and in some are non-existent. Inorder to secure the general adop-
tion of a satisfactory scheme, some form of legislative compulsion is
necessary. The one we advocate below is designed to secure a reason-
able level of benefits together with assistance in the form in which it is
most needed. We do not anticipate the reduction of existing allowances,
even should the minimum provided by legislation be lower than that now
given voluntarily, because most managers realise the value of such expen-
diture. We propose that the law should require the employer to give a
sash benefit to the mother, which should ordinarily take the form of half
her daily wage for a period of 4 weeks before and 4 weeks after child-
birth. In addition a bonus of Rs. 5 should be given, except where the
employer has provided the skilled services of a woman doctor and a
trained midwife, in which case any woman refusing to avail herself of
these skilled services should not be eligible for the bonus. We believe
that this addition to the benefit would go far to overcome the prejudice
in favour of the untrained dai. If a woman is in good health, she need
not be precluded from working during the 4 weeks before child birth,
provided her allowances are not reduced, but no woman should be allowed
to resume work until 4 weeks after her child is born. In the case of
plantation labour, the condition of a “ qualifying period ” of employ-
ment required in other industries could safely be dispensed with.