MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENT.
SANITATION.
CALCUTTA, THE 17TH JULY 1917.
RESOLUTION—No. 455 San.
READ—
The Reports of the Sanitary Commissioner, the Sanitary Board, and the Sanitary
Engineer, Bengal, for the year 1916.
READ ALSO—
The Annual Statistical Returns and Short Notes on Vaccination in Bengal for the
year 1916-17.
General Results.—In the Resolution of this Government reviewing the
Report of the Sanitary Commissioner for 1915, it was observed that that year
was the worst of a cycle of bad years, the result being that Bengal sustained
a loss of population for the first time since 1892. The Governor in Council
is pleased to observe that the record for 1916 is very different, there being an
excess of births over deaths amounting to 204,571. This is the largest
annual increase registered since 1912 and more than compensates for the
decrease recorded in 1915. The recovery was the combined result of a
slightly enhanced birth-rate and of a considerable decrease in mortality from
almost every cause, and more especially from cholera, small-pox and fever.
The rainfall was generally well distributed and ample in amount ; the
outturn of the rice crop, on which the agricultural prosperity of the Presi-
dency mainly depends, was good. As a result of these favourable conditions,
there was an increase of the natural population throughout the Presidency.
Though small in West and North Bengal, it was large in Eastern Bengal, the
growth of population being 9 per mille in the Dacca Division and 14½ per
mille in the Chittagong Division.
2. Birth-rate.—The birth-rate rose from 31.80 to 31.89 per mille. The
actual increase in the number of births is extremely small, but it is satisfactory
that the check to the natural growth of the population has been stayed, and
that the decrease of 2 per mille returned in 1915 has given place to an
increase.
3. Death-rate.—Compared with 1915, the number of deaths decreased
by nearly a quarter of a million, the death-rate falling from 32.83 per mille to
27.37 per mille. The mortality from every cause was lower, and the decrease
was shared in by all areas, whether urban, rural, or combined urban and rural,
while the mortality, both from fever and cholera, was the lowest on record
since the creation of the Presidency in 1912.
There was a further satisfactory decline in infant mortality, the ratio which
deaths in the first year of life bear to births falling from 21.89 per cent. to 19.53
per cent. In only one district, as against six last year, was the proportion
of infant mortality higher than 25 per cent., and the district ratio in this case
was considerably less than the maximum of the previous year.
4. Accuracy of the vital statistics.—The margin of error in vital
statistics due to defective registration still persists. Comparison on a large
scale of the returns obtained by Inspectors and Sub-Inspectors of Vacci-
nation with entries in the thana registers reveal a deficiency averaging
2.58 per cent. in the case of births and 1.93 per cent. in the case of deaths,
while in two districts one out of every 10 births escaped registration. The
Sanitary Commissioner reports that there has been some improvement in
towns, but from the abnormally low birth-rates reported in some towns, e.g.,
3.92 per mille in Jessore, 4.53 per mille in Barrackpore, and 4.80 per mille
in Sirajganj, it is clear that the return for towns are still very incomplete and
that a large number of births are unreported. A remarkable instance of