Part II. ]
VACCINATION IN THE BENGAL PRESIDENCY.
47
Inoculation in Bengal.
remarks upon the Bengal report thus sums up the state of the case as it stands
in that province :—
The reports of the civil surgeons show that inoculation is still largely practised all over
Lower Bengal. In and around some civil stations it had been discontinued, but in the interior
it is still practised without any check or restraint. But no information regarding the mortality,
direct and indirect, of the practice has been furnished by any of the civil surgeons. Inoculation,
though prohibited in Calcutta, was practised surreptitiously, but the inoculator was soon
caught and punished. In the 24-Pergunnahs it was extensively practised, and there, too, the
men were punished
It was practised in three districts where it was supposed the inoculators
had given it up, as in the Sonthal Pergunnahs, the Chota Nagpore division, Bhaugulpore, &c.
Defect in Act IV (B.
C.) of 1865.
In more than one of the reports received from the Lower Bengal districts
where Act IV (B. C.) of 1865 is in force, a defect in the law as it stands has
been stated. It appears that parents who allow their children to be inoculated
are not considered to have broken any law, nor are they liable to a penalty if
they conceal the fact, and in the latter case there is no one to give evidence
against the inoculator, who, with the connivance of the parents, can thus defy
the law.
Apathy in applying
the Act.
Ex-inoculators.
That there is apathy displayed in the working of this important Act the
following words extracted from the Government resolution on the report,
clearly show. It says.—" The fact that in several instances outbreaks of small-
pox in districts to which Act IV of 1865 has been extended, were traced to the
proceedings of inoculators, should render magistrates sensible of the necessity
which exists for a strict enforcement of the law." Since the close of the year
the Act has been introduced into certain thanas of Jessore, and arrangements
are being made for extending it to the Sonthal Pergunnahs. The reports
relate some instances where the law was successfully put into operation. If the
inoculators can be shown that their trade is no longer profitable, a large body
of valuable allies will be gained to the cause of vaccination. Conversion on a
large scale amongst them is not likely to follow other means. The Surgeon
General observes—" If the whole country" (writing of Lower Bengal), "is ever
to be thoroughly vaccinated, it must be done by the agency of ex-inoculators, and
not by costly establishments maintained by the State." Vaccination by the
agency of ex-inoculators in the Chota Nagpore division has now become an
institution. In the district of Maunbhoom alone 15,150 persons were vaccinat-
ed by this agency, and careful verification of more than half of the total
showed that 87.8 per cent. were successful. In the districts of Midnapore and
Bankoorah, a self-supporting system of vaccination by the agency of the local
ex-inoculators is under trial and the result is anxiously looked for. But there
is this great difficulty in the way of utilizing the services of these men. If
we take from them what they and the vast majority of their countrymen
believe to be an honest means of gaining their livelihood, it is almost unreason-
able to suppose that we can count upon them as other than enemies, unless
we place at their disposal an equally easy and congenial means whereby they
can gain their bread. To attain a self-supporting system it is essential that the
ex-inoculators work at a distance from the Government vaccinators, for they
cannot compete with subsidised labour, and vaccination must be sufficiently
known to the people among whom they practise to render them anxious to
obtain it and to pay a trifle for its beneficial effects. In the Monghyr district
the first of these essentials exists, and each ex-inoculator has allotted to him a
certain number of villages in which to practise. The civil surgeon writes :—
All the work in the district is performed by trained inoculators, who get little or no
encouragement in the way of remuneration from Government, and upon whom, as a necessary
result, we have no check.
All that Government allows on account of vaccination is Rs. 120 per annum, and it has
hitherto been the custom to divide this sum among the deserving trained inoculators; but now
that their number has so increased, the share they may become individually entitled to is
scarcely worth claiming. The number of these men applying for perwannahs has considerably
increased during the year under notice—134 against 92. They are generally late in presenting
themselves, and only work over a short period. They are furnished with an order to the police
to be allowed to operate in certain thanas, and their respective document is attached.
In the event of any of them being discovered practising inoculation, the police are
requested to report the matter at once. A copy of the printed form they get is appended.
Each man works among the inhabitants of a few villages in the vicinity of his own;
and in fact this is the only way of getting the people to submit to the operation. These men
are generally known to the villagers, and they repose confidence in them, which would not be