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CHAPTER XIV, 
of dealing with the large number of new-comers attracted by oppor- 
tunities for employment. 
Employers’ Efforts. 
In the first two cases medical facilities have not expanded with 
anything like the necessary rapidity To meet the needs of the increased 
populations, and in most centres the civil hospitals and dispensaries 
and the municipal medical institutions are incapable of serving more 
than a proportion of those in their vicinity. This position has been 
relieved in certain areas by the assumption on the part of employers 
of responsibility for the provision of medical aid for their own employees. 
Some of the jute mills on the Hooghli, for example, have provided ad- 
mirably planned medical organisations ; these are used not only by the 
employees and their families, but by large numbers of persons uncon- 
nected with the industry. We have seen nothing in India to excel 
the medical organisation and hospital equipment provided by the Angus 
Jute Mill Company for their workers, and special tribute must be 
paid to the management of this industrial concern for their work in 
regard to medical attention and welfare. Many employers, whose 
industrial concerns were within reach of municipal and Government 
hospitals, have also made provision, often on a generous scale, for their 
own labour forces. Others have instituted small dispensaries attached 
to their works, sending patients suffering from serious illness to the 
local Government or municipal hospitals. In such cases the firm 
may either give a substantial annual donation to the hospital or pay 
the hospital charges of all its employees admitted for treatment. Still 
other industrial concerns have made no medical provision of any kind 
for their workers, their contention being that the whole responsibility for 
the provision of such services should properly lie with the municipalities 
or local bodies concerned. We believe that those employers who have 
taken a more humanitarian view have found that their action has had 
valuable effects on the efficiency of their establishments. Many of the 
medical organisations in industrial compounds are worthy of great praise 
and are clearly responsible for a considerable increase in the health and 
happiness of the workers and their families. 
Medical Facilities in New Areas. 
As regards enterprises of the third category, which pioneer 
in areas hitherto undeveloped, such as the Tata Iron and Steel Company 
at Jamshedpur and the Burma Corporation at Namtu, we are of opinion 
that, at least in the initial stage, the responsibility for medical aid 
must rest with the industry. It would obviously be impossible for either 
Government or a district board to accept immediate responsibility for 
medical and health facilities for a large newly transported population 
of this kind. This fact has been fully recognised in the two cases 
we have instanced, where large hospitals with generous medical 
and nursing staffs and equipment have been provided at the entire 
cost of the industries. Similar instances came to our notice in other 
parts of India.