124 
Health in Giridih. 
CHAPTER VIII. 
As this is one of the oldest established mining areas in India 
and the bulk of the property belongs to the State, circumstances would 
geem to make both an opportunity and a claim for model conditions. In 
actual fact, the physique of the people is poor, the general standard of 
health appeared to us to be unsatisfactory and water supplies and sanita- 
tion were defective. The health control is in the hands of a Railway 
District Medical Officer, whose headquarters lie outside the area. The 
immediate supervision is carried out by the hospital assistant surgeon, 
whilst the sanitary inspectors work under the control of the Superintend- 
ent or the District Engineer. We recommend that a full-time resident 
medical officer with public health qualifications be appointed forthwith 
and that a complete re-organisation of the health staff be effected. Only 
then will it be possible to carry out the many improvements calling for 
attention, 
Educational Facilities. 
Another activity of the Boards of Health and Welfare 
should be co-operation with the Government in improving and extend- 
ing educational facilities. During our tour we visited a number of 
schools and heard a considerable amount of evidence as to the available 
educational facilities for the children of miners. In the Asansol area we 
came across 8 school run by the miners themselves, and evidence was also 
given of another such school in the Dhanbad area. We were throughout 
struck by the fact that success depended very largely on the attitude 
of the company managers, and that, in some cases, colliery schools 
were attended only by the children of clerks and higher grade 
workers, especially where managers did not directly encourage the 
attendance of the children of actual workers. In the Giridih colliery 
area no less than 17 schools are being run, and the extent of education 
among the children was markedly in advance of other mining areas. 
The Superintendent of the East Indian Railway Colliery Department 
stated that the management had exercised a form of compulsion in the 
matter of education for more than a generation, but that the miners now 
willingly send their children to school. In the Jharia area, where many 
different companies are involved, no such scheme operates and, indeed, 
the number of schools, both Government and colliery, has fallen since 
1927 from 99 to 88. In his most recent report, the Chief Inspector of 
Mines emphasises the absence of any concerted movement in this area 
to bring the children of the workers under the provisions of the Bihar and 
Orissa Primary Education Act of 1919, although children under 13 
years have been excluded from the mines since 1924. In view 
of this fact and as alternative employment for even the older children is 
scarce, we would press for the introduction of compulsory primary educa- 
bion in the coalfields. We have suggested elsewhere that Government 
should adopt the British practice of giving percentage grants towards 
expenditure on health. and welfare measures. and this method