2
As regards birth registration in towns the Director of Public Health
remarks as follows :—
In view of the importance of the question, it is to be hoped that one effect of the
Baby Week movement will be to direct attention to the need for improving the registration
of births in municipal areas generally. Perhaps the efforts of educated women, both
Indian and European, may be able to do more in this direction than other attempts have
yet been able to accomplish.
Infant mortality.—In 1923, 253,694 infants died under the age of one
year, as against 239,451 during the preceding year, the total mortality
showing a net increase of 5.9 per cent. Comparing the age mortality rates of
the year 1923 with the mean rates for the previous ten years, the year under
review is however a particularly healthy year.
Deaths from child birth were reported to be 1,185 in 1923 as against
2,567 in 1922. The Director of Public Health is, however, of opinion that
very little reliance can be placed upon these figures. In this connection the
Director of Public Health remarks :—
The obviously incomplete nature of the returns that are at present being received in
respect to deaths from child birth points to the need for directing more attention to
maternal and infant welfare, and it is to be hoped that the inauguration of a Baby Week
throughout the province will have the effect of arousing public interest in this important
question.
Hitherto the efforts of Government to establish classes for the training
of the indigenous dai have not been very successful, but local bodies are
beginning to show more interest in this scheme.
It is gratifying to note that some district boards and municipalities
have already started classes for the training of dais. The Governor in
Council hopes that this movement will gain a firm footing and result in
bringing immense blessings both to the Indian mothers and their babies.
Cholera.—There were 41,483 deaths from cholera in 1923 as against
51,712 in 1922, the mortality rate in these two years from this disease being
.9 and 1.1 per mille, respectively. The Director of Public Health remarks
that—
Cholera was specially prevalent during the periods 1891 to 1897 and 1905 to 1908,
when in both cases the rainfall trend was down, and that on the contrary the disease
declined very markedly when the rainfall trend was elevated.
Many district boards have taken effective measures to cope with cholera
epidemics by employing additional temporary staff, and the Governor in
Council appreciates the admirable work which such voluntary agencies as
the Bengal Health Association and the Cholera Brigade of the Central
Anti-malaria Co-operative Society have done in connection with cholera
prevention.
Small-pox.—In 1923 the mortality from small-pox was 4,236 as against
36,190 in 1920, 8,257 in 1921 and 7,864 in 1922 and the death-rate .1 per
mille lower than it has been for the past 23 years. In 1923 nearly 62 per
cent. of the small-pox deaths occurred in the four districts of Mymensingh,
Dacca, Jalpaiguri and Chittagong. The average figures of mortality of the
previous ten years show that nearly two-thirds of the small-pox deaths in
Bengal are usually confined to Calcutta and the following eight districts,
viz., Mymensingh, 24-Parganas, Midnapore, Dinajpur, Dacca, Rangpur,
Pabna and Howrah. The Director of Public Health has urged that the
attention of the local authorities of the city of Calcutta and these eight
districts should be drawn to the necessity for improving the condition of their
population in respect to vaccination with a view to protecting not only them-
selves but the whole population of India, Small-pox tends to recur every
five years or so in epidemic form. In this connection the Director of Public
Health remarks as follows :—
While it is a matter of very great satisfaction to be able to report an exceedingly
low incidence of small-pox during the year under report, it is impossible with the