HEALTH AND WELFARE IN PLANTATIONS. 417 
Official Supervision of Health and Welfare. 
As regards the nature and extent of official supervision of the 
health and welfare of plantation labour, wide variations exist between the 
various provinces. In Assam the Director of Public Health has appa- 
rently little or no contact with the plantations, as he neither is an official 
inspector of factories, nor has the right to inspect plantations, although 
he informed us that he had paid a number of visits at the invitation of 
individual managers. This lack of co-operation and co-ordination be- 
tween the Government and the medical organisations on the plantations 
may be due to the fact that, until recent years, no separate Public Health 
Department existed in Assam, official supervision of the health conditions 
of plantations being carried out by the Medical Department through the 
district Civil Surgeons. The latter are still official inspectors and all 
health statistical returns from plantations are sent through them to the 
Deputy Commissioner and eventually reach the Director of Public Health 
for inclusion in his annual reports. We recommend that the Director, 
his assistants and the district health officers should be ex-officio in- 
spectors of plantations, with power of entry at all times and with the 
right to inspect health registers and to report and advise on all health 
questions. 
In the Dooars the Director of Public Health of Bengal and his 
assistants have the right of inspection. Owing, however, to the incom- 
plete organisation of the Public Health Department as regards 
district health officers, the Civil Surgeon of Jalpaiguri still remains 
the ex-officio inspector, although his multifarious duties at head- 
quarters prevent him from making frequent visits to the plantations. 
The arrangement, as in Assam, is unsatisfactory. 
In the Madras Presidency the Public Health Department is at a 
more advanced stage ; the Director of Public Health and his assistants are 
ex-officio inspectors, and every district has its health officer empowered 
to inspect the plantations in his district. In addition a special officer, 
known as the Planters’ Districts Health Officer, has been engaged during 
the past 4 years to advise on health work on plantations, as it was found 
that the regular officers’ manifold duties precluded them from giving 
sufficient attention to the plantations. The salary and expenses of this 
health officer are borne by Government, but all expenditure incurred 
as a result of his recommendations is borne by the plantations. In 
Madras, also, the monthly health reports and statistical returns are sent 
bo the district health officer, who is thus kept informed of the health 
conditions of his district. As soon as a complete health service comes 
into being in Assam and Bengal, a similar procedure should be adopted, 
and the inspecting powers of Civil Surgeons transferred to the officers 
of the Health Department. The Indian Tea Association representatives 
expressed themselves in favour of an extension to all plantations of 
the activities of the Government Public Health Department and of a 
closer relationship between that department and the plantations medical 
stafls, 
Zi