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TRIENNIAL REPORT.
ON
VACCINATION IN EASTERN BENGAL AND ASSAM
FOR THE YEARS
1908-1909, 1909-1910, 1910-1911.
1. Introductory.
This being a combined report for the three seasons 1908-1909, 1909-1910, 1910-1911,
the figures have been compared not only with those of the years immediately preceding
the present, but also with those of previous triennial periods. The ratios have been
calculated on the census of 1901, as this is the last season of the decade.
2. Vaccination agencies.
Practically the whole of the vaccination in the province is performed departmentally.
Operations by dispensary officers, railway medical officers, tea-garden medical officers
and other extra-departmental agents amount to under 25,000.
The average yearly number of vaccinators employed during the past three years,
was 1,146. Of these 854 were licensed and the remainder paid. Changes in the number
of officers employed were made from time to time according to the needs of the dis-
tricts and for outbreaks of small-pox, when extra temporary hands were employed.
Licensed Vaccinators are employed in all the rural areas of the Eastern Bengal
districts, also in the Goalpara district of the Assam Valley, and to a certain extent in
Sibsagar and Lakhimpur. On the whole they are successful agents, they work satisfac-
torily and in most districts there is no difficulty in recruiting them.
Paid Vaccinators are employed in Hill districts, and in most parts of the Assam
and Surma valleys, where the people are either unaccustomed to pay for vaccination or
where they are too poor to support a licensed vaccinator ; and also within municipal
(compulsory) areas. The Civil Surgeon of Malda and the Civil Surgeon of Lakhimpur
have recommended the introduction of paid vaccinators instead of licensed vaccinators
in certain parts of their districts, and the Civil Surgeon of Sylhet has suggested the
employment of ganaks or licensed vaccinators instead of paid vaccinators in certain parts
of the Sylhet district. These proposals will be enquired into. The Civil Surgeons
of Malda and Rajshahi have also suggested the employment of female vaccinators to
operate among certain classes of Muhammadans who object to having their women
and female children seen or touched by a man. The suggestion is worthy of consi-
deration, and I think the employment of a female vaccinator for Dacca City also would be
of distinct advantage.
Some difficulty is found in realizing licensed vaccinators' fees in Bakarganj, Chitta-
gong, Tippera and Noakhali, and to a less extent in Dacca and Mymensingh. In
Bakarganj and Chittagong the condition is said to affect the recruiting. I think that
the District Boards might be asked to give assistance in realizing the fees through the
Presidents of the Unions, and making good the deficiency by a system of rewards.
3. Number of operations.
4,288,272 vaccinations were performed between 1908 and 1911. This exceeds the
figures of the previous triennial period 1905-1908 by 1,82,570, and the figure of this latic.
period again exceeds that of the period 1902-1905 by 1,92,016, so that on the whole there
has been a substantial increase in the number of the operations during the past decade
The variations in district figures are discussed in section 7.