Proceedings of the Hon'ble the Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab in the Home (Medical and Sanitary) Department.
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Letter from the Officiating Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals, No. 32 S„dated 13th June
1 8 8 9 , s u b m i t t i n g t h e L o c k , H o s p i t a l R e p o r t s o f t h e C a n t o n m e n t s i n t h e P u n j a b f o r t h e
year ending December 31st, 1888.
REMARKS.—The observations contained in the first paragraph of the
Review of the Lock Hospitals Report for the year 1887 have had little effect
in securing punctuality in the submission of the reports for the past year. The
L i e u t e n a n t - G o v e r n o r w i l l s a y n o t h i n g f u r t h e r o n t h e s u b j e c t a t p r e s e n t s , a s i n
view of the facts disclosed in the reports now under review it is a matter for
consideration whether the continued submission of these reports is necessary.
2. In consequence of a Resolution passed by the House of Commons
the Government of India has intimated that the rules under the Cantonment
Acts are to be re-considered, and it has ordered that existing rules shall be so
worked that there shall be no compulsory examination of women, no registrar-
tion of women and no granting of licenses. So far as the Lieutenant-Governor
is aware it is not the intention of the Government of India to revert to the
policy of protection heretofore in force, and it is therefore a matter of serious
interest to observe whether any indication of the probable-effect of the new policy
can be obtained from the figures furnished by the present reports.
3. It will be seen from the remarks of the Inspector-General of Civil
Hospitals that nine of the sixteen cantonments show an increase of venereal
disease among the troops during the year 1888 as compared with the previous
year, which is very marked in the case of the cantonments of Delhi, Umballa,
Jullundur, Ferozepore, Meean Meer and Mooltan. The withdrawal of the system
of registration and compulsory examination of women was carried out with effect
from September 1st, 1888, and Dr. Gray has been at pains to summarize from the
reports the facts and opinions bearing on this measure and the effect which it
has apparently produced on the statistics of disease among the troops. He
considers that so far as they go these facts and opinions indicate that an increase of
disease has resulted from the abolition of protective measures. Of the seven
cantonments in which a decrease in the number of cases of disease among the
troops is noticeable as compared with the previous year, five are in the hills, and
as these stations are practically denuded of troops during the last three months
of the year, the new policy cannot have materially affected these cantonments
during the year under report. At Peshawar where a decrease in the annual
rate of admission of soldiers to the Station Hospital has occurred the abolition
of compulsory examination has not, as at most other stations, been followed
by a complete withdrawal from examination by the practising prostitutes. At
Attock the remaining cantonment in which a decrease of disease has occurred
the number of the troops is small and the figures indicate little.
4. Table II of the reports shows clearly to what extent women have
attended at the Lock Hospitals since the 1st of September, when their attend-
ance became voluntary. At Delhi, Dagshai, Subathu, Jullundur, Ferozepore,
Mooltan, Rawalpindi and Murree the attendance seems to have been discon-
tinued altogether, and for all practical purposes the Lock Hospitals might have
been closed, as in fact was done at Delhi. At the other cantonments with the
exception of Peshawar and Naushahra the attendance appears to have dwindled
down to one or two solitary cases, and at Kasauli, Meean Meer and Dalhousie
no women were examined or placed under treatment during the month of
December.
5. The Lieutenant-Governor agrees with Dr. Gray that it is inadvisable
to draw conclusions from statistics colleted over so short a period as four
months, but if the use of the Lock Hospitals continues to be neglected by