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6 . T h e S u b - A s s i s t a n t S u r g e o n B r a n c h o f t h e I . M . D . , c r e a t e d a s e a r l y
as 1822 under the designation of "Hospital Assistants", is composed
entirely of Indians, and its members are employed to assist I.M.S. officers
in the medical care of Indian troops. Of a total strength of about 698,
96 were in civil employ in 1935, 87 in 1936 and 89 in 1937. The
last number included 9 employed on Railways, 6 under the North West
Frontier Province, 13 on foreign service (under the Indian Research Fund
Association, Nyasaland Protectorate, Burma, etc.), and the rest under
the Central Government. There are 61 Subadars, 2 Subadar-Majors and
7 Honorary Indian Commissioned Officers in His Majesty's Indian Land
Forces.
7 . U p t o 1 9 3 1 a d m i s s i o n t o G o v e r n m e n t M e d i c a l S c h o o l s w a s m a d e b y
the Principals of those institutions and the candidates thus selected received
a Scholarship of Rs. 12 p. m. and free training, while the Government of
India paid a capitation fee to the Local Governments concerned for their
medical education. In 1932 this system was discontinued.
8 . T i l l r e c e n t l y , r e c r u i t m e n t t o t h e p e r m a n e n t c a d r e o f S u b - A s s i s t a n t
Surgeons was restricted to those medical students who had been educated
at Government expense but had not been admitted to the service under
the retrenchment scheme of 1932 and from the Sub-Assistant Surgeons
reserve. It has now been decided to resort to open market and recruit-
ment will henceforth be made by a Selection Board.
4. MEDICAL EDUCATION OF WOMEN.
It is a curious fact that in India medical education for women was
embarked on before any other kind of professional education, and at a time
when literacy among women, which is even now only 29 per mille,must
have been only a fraction of one per cent. The reason for this phenomenon
is not far to seek. It depended, in fact, on the customs relating to women
which were then prevalent and which made it impossible for the majority
of Indian women to receive medical aid at the hands of men.
2. Christian missionaries who went into the "zenanas" became aware
of the amount of suffering endured by women on account of their seclusion
and this led to Missionary Societies sending out women medical mission-
aries in the attempt to relieve this suffering. The majority of the first
medical women in India were missionaries, in fact a large proportion of
the women who first studied medicine in the west, did so with the express
object of becoming medical missionaries and helping their Indian sisters.
The number of such workers was very small compared to the needs of the
country and it was evident that if medical women were to provide medical
aid for Indian women, these medical women must be largely Indian. As
it was out of the question to send Indian women abroad in any numbers for
study, a plan of education had to be devised in India. Some sixty years
ago, the idea of forming a Medical School or College which would
be staffed by women only, probably occurred to no one. Even if it had,
the women to staff it, and a teaching hospital, would not have been avail-
able. Hence other means of educating medical women had to be sought.
Contributed by Dr. Ruth Young, M.B.E., W.M.S., Principal, Lady Hardinge
Medical College, New Delhi.