MUNICIPAL DEPARTMENT.
MEDICAL.
DARJEELING THE 18TH MAY 1906.
RESOLUTION—No. 594T.—M.
READ—
The Triennial Report on the Lunatic Asylums in Bengal for the years 1903, 1904
and 1905.
Read also—
The Annual Returns of the Lunatic Asylums in Bengal for 1903 and 1904 and the
Resolutions recorded thereon by Government.
This is the second Triennial Report on the Lunatic Asylums in Bengal,
and it has been submitted to Government by the prescribed date.
2. The three years which have elapsed since the submission of the last
Triennial Report were marked by the conception and progress of the scheme
for the establishment at Ranchi of a large Central Asylum. It was originally
intended that the proposed Central Asylum should be established at Berham-
pore, and the construction of new buildings was taken in hand there, but the
proposal was abandoned and it was decided, with the previous approval
of the Government of India, to make over the asylum buildings at
Berhampore to the Jail Department, which was prepared to utilise them as a
Central Jail, and to proceed with the construction of the new Central Asylum
at Ranchi. Land has already been acquired at Ranchi, and the plans and
estimates of the buildings to be erected are now under the consideration of
Government. The Central Asylum will be under the management and supervi-
sion of an expert alienist as Superintendent, and the Government of India have
been asked to depute an officer possessing the necessary qualifications.
Meanwhile, pending the construction of the buildings at Ranchi, all the asylums
in the Province are as far as possible being amalgamated at Berhampore,
where the enlarged buildings afford increased accommodation, and the
lunatics at the Dullunda and Cuttack Asylums have already been transferred
to that asylum. The buildings at Dullunda have been utilised for the Form
Stores of this Government, and those at Cuttack will be made over to the Jail
Department for the extension of the Jail. It was also intended that the
lunatics from the Patna Asylum should be transferred to Berhampore, but
the existing buildings were not sufficient for their accommodation, and in view
of the approaching transfer of the Central Asylum to Ranchi it was considered
unnecessary to incur additional expenditure in erecting buildings for their
accommodation. As the result of the formation of the new Province, the
Asylum at Dacca was brought under the control of the Inspector-General of
Civil Hospitals, Eastern Bengal and Assam, from the 16th October 1905, and
the Report under review therefore deals with the statistics of four asylums
only.
In connection with the proposal to locate the new Central Asylum at
Ranchi, it has been suggested that a Central Asylum for the reception of the
European lunatics of Northern India should also be established there. The
Government of India have consulted the other Local Governments concerned
on this proposal, and the matter is still under consideration.
3. The Inspector-General again draws attention to the fact that there
is an evident tendency for the asylum population to increase, the admis-
sions growing in number year by year, while discharges remain more or less
stationary; and he compares this with the experience of British asylums, where
it is found that the number of pauper insanes under detention is increasing
at an alarming rate. He considers that this is due mainly to two causes,
firstly, the greater confidence now felt in these institutions, and secondly,
the fact that the public generally are becoming more unwilling to support
incapable relatives. It is improbable, however, that the second cause noticed
by the Inspector-General of Civil Hospitals has actually produced much effect
upon the figures, as the non-criminal lunatics admitted to asylums in Bengal
are in most cases sent up by the Police and are usually destitute and without
friends or relatives. In 1904 the number of admissions was 228, the largest