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CHAPTER XXIIL—HEALTH AND WELFARE IN PLANTATIONS. 
Health Conditions and Health Statistics. 
The health of the worker in plantation areas is a question 
of primary importance to all concerned. The plantation manager 
rarely fails to realise that, in carrying out the duty of conserving his 
workers’ health, he is also serving his own best interests. Not 
only does a high morbidity rate handicap production and reduce earn- 
ing capacity, but experience has shown that it is easier to attract 
labour to, and keep labour on, a healthy garden than an unhealthy 
one where, for instance, malaria is rife. The necessity for the accurate 
maintenance of records of sickness and mortality is less generally 
realised. Without these it is difficult to determine variations in health 
at different periods and between different areas and populations, or to 
estimate the effects of expenditure on prevention of disease. The 
methods of registration in India make it almost impossible to extract 
birth and death rates for industrial workers from those of the general 
population, but in the plantation areas we have been given records of 
vital statistics for a number of individual estates. These show that, 
generally speaking, the death and infantile mortality rates of planta- 
tion populations are considerably lower than the corresponding rates of 
the respective provinces as a whole. This seems to indicate that both 
economic and general health conditions are of a higher standard than 
those in the average rural or urban area. In Assam birth rates are 
generally lower than might be expected, probably owing to omissions in 
the registers ; we believe that, as and when accurate records are obtained, 
the registered birth rates on the plantations will gradually rise above 
the recorded provincial rates. No garden visited by us in Assam had a 
registered death rate exceeding 36 per 1000, but under present regula- 
tions, such rate must be at least 70 per 1000 before a garden can be 
slassed as “ unhealthy ”. We consider that such a classification is un- 
necessary, and that, apart altogether from these figures, continuous 
attention should be directed to prevention of the causes of ill health and 
mortality. In the estates of South India birth rates generally are consi- 
erably higher than in Assam, probably as a result of more accurate 
registration. Rather surprisingly, the infantile mortality rate showed 
no corresponding increase. This variation, which may be due to the 
lesser prevalence of malaria, cannot be attributed to better economic 
conditions or superior physique. We recommend that all managers 
should be required to maintain birth and death registers, and that by 
nspection Government should ensure that these are reasonably accurate. 
Physique, Nutrition and Dietary. 
} Apart from the gardens where malaria and hookworm were 
rife, the physique of plantation labourers and their families appeared to 
us to be satisfactory, and the general standard is certainly higher than 
that of the population of the recruiting areas. We were informed that 
the physique of new recruits was frequently a matter of concern to garden 
managers. who sometimes found it necessary to issue free food for several