24
than if they were mere wandering vaccinators. I think it might be well to provide each
vaccinator with a small house at some central town or village of his circle. Such house could
in time be a dispensing place for simple drugs, such as quinine, cholera medicines, ammonia
for snake bites, and such like things.
7. Your proposals contemplate giving the vaccinators full salary all through the year,
whereas it has been hitherto the custom to put these people on half salary during the recess.
I fully agree in your view, that if we want men to work well and honestly during the season,
we must not leave them with insufficient means of support during the recess. The men cannot
make their livelihood in any other way during the short recess; while they can, if they reside
in their circles, be useful in dispensing fever medicines during the rainy and sickly seasons.
I think, however, that your proposals as to the vaccinators' salaries might be to some extent
modified, so as to admit of payment by results for successful vaccinations. I would put the
salaries of the vaccinators at Rs. 7, Rs. 9. and Rs. 11 per mensem, and an allowance of 1 rupee
for every 20 successful operations might be granted to each vaccinator at the end of the season.
The grant of the allowance would depend on the reports of the Superintendent and the Civil
Surgeon as to the state of things in each circle at the time of their visits, and on the report
of the Tahsildar as to the general conduct of the vaccinator. The men could live on their
salaries (as now suggested,) and the capitation allowance would help to make them active and
attentive. Effective supervision would, it is hoped, reduce the risk of fudging returns for the
sake of the allowance to a minimum. A vaccinator who worked well might manage 1,500 suc
cessful operations in the year. If so, he would earn Rs. 75 over and above his salary . The
yearly earnings of a 1st class vaccinator who effected 1,500 successful operations, would be:
11 Χ 12 = 132 + 75 = Rs. 207 a year, —about Rs. 17 a month. I do not think this would
be too much to Pay for good work.
* Probably it would be best that he should send du
plicate returns,—one to the
Superitendent
and one to
Tahsildar fur transmission to the Deputy Commissioner.
Lithographed forms would be provided.
8. The Civil Surgeon of Nágpúr would, under your supervision, arrange for supplying
the vaccinators with lymph ; and he would
also instruct the Superitendent and the
vaccinators as to when and where they should
break ground each season. The limits of
each circle, the forms of returns each vacci-
nator should send * could be arranged hereafter, as soon as the general scheme shall have
been approved.
9. The Deputy Commissioner of Nágpúr has reported that he is ready and anxious to
carry out your scheme at once in his district. He has Rs 910 in his Local Fund Budget for
the vaccinators' expenditure of the current year; he can find other money to meet the cost
of the six months still remaining. And he has every hope that in future years he will be
able to provide Rs. 2,500 to cover all vaccination expenditure under your scheme.
10. If you agree to the trifling modifications I propose in your scheme, I will, with
your permission, get your letter and mine printed, and circulate the correspondence to the other
Deputy Commissioners in this Division. I will also submit the plan to the Secretary, and
solicit sanction to the Deputy Commissioner. Nágpúr's, bringing your plan into operation at
once; and to our introducing the same scheme into other districts with such modifications as
funds and circumstances may require.
11. I will also point out to the Deputy Commissioners that we must not expect too com-
plete success at the outset of an arrangement of this kind. If we can get the scheme fairly
launched the first year even in one or two tahsils, we can extend it in future years; the peo-
ple will, by degrees, become accustomed to our arrangements; and the rural vaccinators will
become a part (and I hope a very useful part) of the regular administrative staff of each dis-
trict.
Note, dated 15th September 1870.
The Sanitary Commissioner has agreed to my proposal to pay the vaccinators partly at
any rate, by results. But ho points out that at present no vaccinator gets less than Rs. 10 a
month during the working season, and he doubts whether any good men would take service on
so low a wage as Rs. 7 a month.
I would therefore so far modify the proposal in my 7th paragraph as to put the salaries
for the working months at Rs. 15, Rs. 12, and Rs. 10 per month; for the recess at Rs. 11,
Rs. 9, and Rs. 7 per month ; and I would make the capitation allowance one rupee for every
(50) fifty successful operations.