No. 3373.
Extract from the Proceedings of the Hon'ble the Officiating Chief Commissioner,
Central Provinces, in the General Department, dated Pachmarhi, the 30th
April 1903.
READ—
The Triennial Report and Statements of the Lunatic Asylums in the Central Provinces
for the years 1900, 1901 and 1902.
READ ALSO—
The Reports of the Superintendents of the Nagpur and Jubbulpore Lunatic Asylums for
the same period.
RESOLUTION.
Hitherto the Report on Lunatic Asylums has been submitted annually ; but
under orders conveyed in the Home Department letter No. 2745, dated the 26th
March 1901, the present report deals with three years—1900, 1901 and 1902.
2. The average population during the period was 368, the figures for the
Nagpur Asylum being 186 and that for the Jubbulpore Asylum 182. Of those
admitted 73 per cent. were males and 27 per cent. females. There was no
overcrowding as regards the total number of inmates, but the accommodation for
females at Jubbulpore was found distinctly insufficient. Out of 317 remaining
on the 31st December 1902, 81 were criminal lunatics.
3. It has been under consideration whether the Jubbulpore Lunatic Asylum
should not be done away with and accommodation provided for the inmates by
enlarging the buildings at Nagpur. The enlargement of the Asylum at Nagpur
would be a costly undertaking, and the buildings, which were adapted from
some military barracks, would not be convertible into an asylum of the modern
type. Moreover, the Administrative Medical Officer does not consider the
number of lunatics detained to be sufficient to justify the appointment of a
whole-time alienist. The Officiating Chief Commissioner has discussed the whole
question with the Administrative Medical Officer and the Superintendent of the
Nagpur Asylum. He is not prepared to enter upon any scheme of centralization
which does not include provision for the services of a specialist in mental disease
with his whole time devoted to asylum work. The comparatively small number
of insane persons in the area from which the lunatics are received renders it
unlikely that the numbers to be dealt with will increase so as to make centraliza-
tion expedient. At the Census of 1901 there were 1,520 persons in the Central
Provinces returned as insane, 330 in Berar and 300 in Central India, these being
the areas from which, under existing arrangements, admissions are made. Of the
numbers now confined in the Asylums many could with perfect safety be made
over to the custody of their relations or friends if the latter would only undertake
to receive them, and the residuum of serious cases requiring the constant atten-
tion of an alienist is small. The improvements, the necessity for which is referred
to in the report, notably the provision of suitable and sufficient accommodation
for female patients and the construction of a ward in which to keep under
observation, prior to transfer to a Presidency Asylum, Europeans and Eurasians
alleged to be insane, will now be proceeded with. A proper hospital will also be
constructed. The Administrative Medical Officer is being consulted as to
whether it would not be well to have all female lunatics detained in the Asylum
at Nagpur. At present the Nagpur Asylum takes in patients from the Nagpur and
Chhattisgarh Divisions and two districts of the Nerbudda Division, besides the
Berar lunatics, while the Jubbulpore Asylum receives lunatics from the Jubbulpore
Division, three districts of the Nerbudda Division, and Central India. If the
proportion of inmates of the two Asylums is to be maintained approximately
as at present, some alteration in the admission area for male lunatics may be
needed in the event of its being decided to keep all females in one Asylum.