10
ANNUAL REPORT ON THE
among the troops as compared with the number of women admitted into the Lock Hospital for
the same affections, shows a want of activity in carrying out the instructions of the Contagious
Diseases Act by the police which demands immediate amendment.
In conclusion, it only remains to be stated that, in addition to the suggestion made above,
it is essential that lines should be constructed in a locality entirely set apart as the residence of
prostitutes, and that soldiers contracting disease from any other quarter should be severely
punished.
Extracts from the Annual Medical Report of the Lock Hospital at Bellary,
by Surgeon H. THOMPSON.
Medical charge during the year was held by Surgeon F. H. S. Murphy, M.D., Army Medical
Department, from 1st January to 25th August 1884 ; Surgeon W. H. Thornhill, M.D., Indian
Medical Service, from 26th August to 20th November 1884 ; and Surgeon H. Thompson, M.B., C.M.,
Indian Medical Service, from 21st November to 31st December 1884.
The committee has not assembled during the year. All women found prostituting have
their names put on the register.
When a soldier is admitted to hospital with venereal disease contracted in the station, he is
asked if he can identify the woman from whom he contracted his disease, and, if so, he is taken in
charge of a Corporal and the Head Constable to the bazaar and points her out. The woman is
then taken to the hospital for examination.
There has been an increase of 2·31 per cent. in the total number of admissions compared
with the previous year. There is a marked decrease in the admission for primary syphilis (55
cases) and an increase for gonorrhœa (28 cases). The disease has been of a mild type. There
are 19 admissions for secondary syphilis ; of these, 7 are old cases re-admitted.
There is no doubt that disease is contracted in a great measure from the non-registered
prostitutes. It is ridiculous to suppose that registration is efficient, seeing there are only 73
prostitutes on the register (about 30 of these always in hospital) in a station with a civil
population of about 60,000. The registration extends over a radius of four miles outside the
cantonment boundary and includes eight villages.
The registered prostitutes are divided into two classes and their castes are as follows :—
Class.
Hindus.
M u h a m m a d a n s . Pariahs.
Total.
Remarks.
First
..
..
30
3
11
44
Supposed to go with Europeans only.
Second ..
..
17
6
6
2973
Do. do. Natives only.
These women belong to the lowest order of the people, and are emaciated, broken-down and
repulsive looking. I do not believe that the women received into hospital are with the European
soldiers more than once a month ; many not so often ; there may be one or two exceptions, but
certainly not many. I know that many soldiers have connection with women in the maidans,
jungles, surrounding villages, grass-cutters' lines, barracks (with the married women's servants),
but principally in the bazaars with the dancing girls.
Registration is very lax. The average number on the register this year is 81·07. This figure
is practically wrong. Of the 40 women whose names were removed from the register during
the year, six months elapsed when 20 were removed; at the end of the other six months 20 more.
During these months they were all recorded as present, although reported by the police as absent
from the station.
Head Constable's statement as regards the paucity of the prostitutes.—He cannot arrest a
prostitute without first getting sanction from the Superintendent of Police ; secondly, a warrant
from the Magistrate—this takes ten to fifteen days, and, as a rule, she has hid, absconded , or
gets people to swear to her honesty. A confirmed public prostitute swears, as does some man,
that she is his private mistress ; this woman cannot be registered. Dancing girls are only
employed as such once in fifteen or thirty days; many of them are public prostitutes ; none
of them has ever been registered. This is the chief den of prostitution, but he can get no
witness. All the natives swear to their honesty. Women keep petty shops in the bazaars as a
screen to carry on prostitution. The natives support their statements. Numbers of married
women are public prostitutes, but due principally to rule 497, Indian Penal Code, Act XLV of
1860, they cannot be detected. The greater number of them leave their husbands and carry on
prostitution. He cannot arrest them unless the husband lodges a complaint. He cannot supervise
the registered prostitutes ; they live scattered over the two bazaars and adjoining villages The
police, having reasonable cause to suspect a woman of prostitution, should have the power to bring
the woman direct to hospital, where, on examination, if diseased, let her be detained and registered.
Cantonment Rule No. V sanotions this, but the rule has never been put in force. If the
woman is brought before the Magistrate she invariably " gets off." This year the police have
o n l y s e r v e d t w o s u m m o n s e s t o n o n - r e g i s t e r e d p r o s t i t u t e s . T h e y w e r e n o t c o n v i c t e d .