HEALTH AND WELFARE IN PLANTATIONS, 419 
save on rare occasions, and that they will carry the campaign for the 
uplift of the health of the workers far beyond the minimum requirements 
which the State has a right to demand. 
Previous Experience. * 
Boards of Health for industrial areas are no new conception. 
For years past similar bodies have been at work in the mining districts 
of Jharia and Asansol, and we have reason to believe that planters 
generally would welcome a controlling Board responsible for bringing 
the backward plantations up to the level of the more progressive, and 
for helping and advising individual managers in raising general health 
standards. It is interesting to note that in 1925 the Minister for Public 
Health introduced a measure in the Bengal Legislative Council for the 
control and sanitation of plantation areas in Bengal by means of a Tea 
Gardens Board of Health. The Bill did not pass into law, but it included 
many of the features we have in mind. The only other body which has 
taken any action regarding the formation of a controlling Board 
for plantations is the Anamalais Planters’ Association. This area 
is a taluk of the Coimbatore District and, for some years past, the 
Planters’ Association has made several attempts to obtain the sanction 
of Government for separation from Coimbatore and for the formation of a 
new organisation, complete in itself, which would exercise the functions 
of a loeal Roard for the whole area. 
Suitable Areas. 
The area to be allotted to each Board must depend on local 
considerations and we do not desire to suggest definite limits. It is 
necessary, on the one hand, to avoid giving a Board an unmanageably 
large area and, on the other hand, to make it possible for a Board to pro- 
vide an adequate staff without excessive cost. We imagine that in Assam 
one Board could suitably be constituted for the Surma Valley and two 
for the Assam Valley, one of which, with its centre at Jorhat, might 
have charge of the lower part of the valley and the other the north- 
eastern districts. In the Dooars there might be a single Board, but we 
doubt if that Board will be able to cater for the other planting areas 
of the Bengal Presidency. In South India we think that separate Boards 
would be required for Coorg and the Anamalais; but, whilst it may be 
possible to combine the Nilgiris and the Wynaad areas under one 
Board, we see disadvantages in such combination and suggest consulta- 
tion between the Madras Government and planters’ associations on this 
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Inclusion of other Areas. 
One difficulty which arises in some districts is the existence of 
other areas adjoining and interspersed with plantations. For complete 
public control of malaria and epidemic disease generally, it is undesir- 
able to confine the health administration to the plantations themselves, 
whilst excluding the areas adjoining them. Infectious and contagious 
liseages do not respect boundary lines and fences. It was presumably 
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