Full text: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

254 
..& CHAPTER XIV, _ ..: 
more statistical officers will be required. Asin Britain, the staff need not 
be large, and the necessary specialised training can be acquired after 
appointment. We therefore suggest that the Association should send 
suitable candidates, holding the necessary preliminary qualifications, to 
Europe for their initial training. When the nucleus of a trained staff 
has been obtained, Indian industry should be able to secure research 
into the effect on output of hours, temperature and other factors, the 
suitability of the present meal and rest intervals for the Indian worker, the 
relations between fatigue and accidents and other problems of a like nature 
that the conversion of an agriculturalist into an industrialist makes pecu- 
liarly important in this country. 
Health Administration. 
In some provinces a great advance has been achieved during 
recent years in the organisation of their Public Health Departments, but 
Madras Presidency is the only province which so far includes a woman 
Assistant Director in its Public Health Department. We recommend 
that, particularly in the more industrialised provinces of Bengal and 
Bombay, such appointments should be made. The organisation, co-ordi- 
nation and supervision of all forms of welfare work among women and 
children require expert control, and we feel that this can only be obtained 
if the initiative in these directions is definitely taken by local Governments. 
In addition, every provincial Public Health Department should be 
strengthened by the appointment of a trained statistical officer to take 
charge of all statistical records and to carry out special investigations in 
regard to the incidence of sickness and disease in special areas and for 
special groups of the population. For some years past health propaganda 
work has been developed in most provinces with success. There 
can be no question as to the necessity for greater extension of that form 
of education both by Government and local authorities. Every municipal 
area, also, should have its own Medical Officer of Health and an 
adequate sanitary staff. Under the existing Local Self-Government Acts 
municipal councils have been given almost complete responsibility for 
public health, but in many of the areas visited by us we were unfavour- 
ably impressed with the standard of health administration and with the 
manner in which these duties have been performed. Health Officers are 
to be found in most of the larger municipalities, but their work is too often 
ineffective, because they have incomplete control of the health organisa- 
tions or because their recommendations fail to receive active consideration 
from their councils. It is important that security of tenure for these offi- 
cers should be ensured and, to obtain this, we recommend that they should 
belong to a Government cadre, although their salaries and allowances 
should be a charge on municipal funds. In all extra-municipal areas 
where industry is being developed, a similar health staff should be at work, 
as it is particularly in such areas that strict supervision should be main- 
tained from the start. Greater pressure could be exerted on local boards 
and municipalities by local Governments, if the practice in force in Great 
Britain were adopted of giving percentage grants towards expenditure 
on health measures.
	        
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