Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XIV. - Health and welfare of the industrial worker

Collection:: Economics Books

HEALTH AND WELFARE. 257 Anti-malarial Work. Our remarks as to the action to be taken by municipal and other local bodies apply with equal force to railway authorities and to those responsible for the control of health in the mining areas. In both cases a great improvement in the health of the workers could be effected with the inauguration of more vigorous anti-malarial work. The Bengal Nagpur Railway management has found it an economic proposition to employ a full-time malariologist for purposes of research and to ad- vise its engineers on the carrying out of anti-malarial measures. We recommend this policy for general adoption by railway companies, as in many centres malaria causes a great deal of unnecessary suffering and illness among the staffs, in addition to detracting heavily from their efficiency. Some railway authorities stated that they would be willing to carry out anti-malarial activities in their areas if and when the local municipal councils became similarly active. We believe this negative attitude to be largely responsible for the lack of progress in preventive work of great urgency, and we suggest that railway administrations should be ready to give a lead in this connection. In the mining areas the Boards of Health and Welfare would find it of similar advantage to extend their preventive work to include malaria. For this purpose the medical staff of each Board should include an officer with expert knowledge of the disease and its prevention. Existing Medical Facilities. In India the provision of hospitals, dispensaries and medical treatment has been made mainly by the State, although a number of municipalities and industrial concerns have their own medical institu- tions, the former aided by lump-sum grants from Government. In addition a number of small hospitals are maintained by religious and charitable bodies. Only recently has there been any considerable body of independent medical practitioners, but these tend to be concentrated in the populous centres. With the development of industry in different parts of the country, a new situation has gradually arisen Which has three different aspects requiring consideration. The first 1s where industry has grown up by degrees in the centre of a large town, the numbers employed inthe industry being only a fraction of the whole population. In such cases workers are accustomed to utilise the medical facilities already available to the general Population. In Bombay, for example, the employers, with few exceptions, have considered it unnecessary to provide additional facilities for the treatment of sick employees. At the same time it was Made clear to us that the existing number of hospital beds is quite Inadequate to meet the city’s needs. The second is where industry hag developed in a particular area to such an extent that the industrial workers constitute the bulk of the population. In Many such cases the local hospital, originally intended to meet a far Smaller need, has not attempted to cope with the steadily increasing Population. The third case is where a new industrial concern is started In a rural area remote from any existing medical institution capable

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