HEALTH AND WELFARE. 
259 
Survey of Industrial Areas. 
Whilst the need for extension and expansion of the existing 
medical facilities cannot be over-emphasised, only limited success has 
followed the repeated efforts made to rouse public opinion and to 
induce municipal councils to face the problems associated with ade- 
quate medical relief of the people. The time has come when the 
whole position in urban and industrial areas should be surveyed 
and an estimate made of the requirements of each, due consideration 
being given to already existing facilities, whether Governmental, mu- 
uicipal or industrial. We recommend that these surveys should be 
made by the Government medical departments through their Civil 
Surgeons and that the information thus made available for each ares 
should be considered at a joint conference of representatives of the 
three interested parties. While the primary responsibility will and 
must remain with Government and the local and municipal authorities, 
we believe that in many cases the employer would prefer to provide 
medical facilities for his own workers, if he were given some assistance 
and co-operation from Government and the local authorities. In other 
cases, with or without aid from Government, the local authority might 
provide the additional facilities required and recover the cost involved 
by increased taxation. Decisions on these and other methods could 
best be made at the conferences we have suggested, as we regard 
co-ordination of effort to be essential. With the additional powers 
reserved to themselves under the new Public Health Acts, it should be 
possible for Governments to ensure that effective steps are taken to 
provide early relief in the more needy areas. Governments could also 
enhance general progress by making percentage grants for such addi- 
tional facilities as they approve. This method to which reference has 
already been made, would give Governments power to supervise and 
inspect and to insist on minimum standards. In our opinion it is 
greatly to be preferred to the system of giving lump-sum grants without 
Subsequent supervision, as it not only maintains a measure of control, 
but also necessitates the raising of an equivalent amount by local 
baxation. 
The Scope of Welfare Work. 
Some of those who have considered the question of raising 
the standard of living have been impressed by the possibilities which are 
offered by welfare activities, with their indirect effect on that standard. 
We believe that there are great opportunities for the extension of welfare 
work in India, and that in few directions is expenditure of money and 
thought so certain to give valuable results. There are benefits of great 
portance which the worker is unable to secure for himself, such as 
decent housing, adequate sanitation, efficient medical attention and the 
education of his children, and an advance of State activity should be 
looked for in these directions. There is a difficulty in that the industrial 
workers form only a small fraction of the population and it is difficult 
1 Justify any elaborate and expensive extension of State services for 
their exclusive benefit. In present circumstances therefore, further