NOTES ON VACCINATION IN THE
CENTRAL PROVINCES AND BERAR FOR
THE SEASON 1909-10.
Population and area in which
vaccination work was per-
formed,
During the year the Lower Taluks of Sironcha in the Chanda District, cover-
ing an area of 539 square miles, with a population of 20,218
souls, were transferred to the Madras Presidency. The
present area served by the Vaccination Department is
130,971 square miles and the population 13,601,341.
Vaccination establishment.
2. The number of Assistant Superintendents (29) on duty in the Khalsa
and Feudatory States remained unaltered. The Hon'ble
the Chief Commissioner has sanctioned the number being
increased by five men to provide for better supervision in the Nagpur, Raipur
and Bilaspur Districts. They will be entertained from October next, but ap-
parently an additional Assistant Superintendent is badly required for Chanda also.
As regards Vaccinators, the Khalsa returns show an increase of 27 men and
the Feudatory States 3. The increase in the former is chiefly due to the inclusion
of the 25 apprentices, who have hitherto been wrongly classed as peons and also
to the Municipalities of Tumsar (in Bhandara) and Akola having entertained a
separate vaccinator of their own. In the Feudatory States, Kanker and Korea
increased their staff by one each, and the vaccinator of Changbhakar has been
added to the list, as the returns from the State have for the first time been received
and incorporated in the Provincial Report.
Total number of operations
performed in the Khalsa and
Feudatory States. Statement I.
3. There has been a considerable fall in the total number of vaccinations per-
formed during the year, both in the Khalsa and in the
Feudatory States. In the. British Districts, the number
fell from 559,098 in 1908-09 to 534,368 in the past
year, and the average number performed by each vaccinator from 2,101 to 1,881,
the chief causes contributing towards the decrease being (1) the discontinuance
of vaccination by Sub-Assistant Surgeons, (2) low birth-rate in the Northern
districts of the Province and (3) the wide spread epidemic of plague in some of
the districts, especially the Southern and Western districts. The unusal number
of marriages in February and March, which following as it did a year (Sinhast)
in which marriages were forbidden, caused a considerable movement of people
from place to place, and thus impeded the progress of vaccination during the
past year. Had it not been for the energy of the Vaccination Staff, as stated
by the Civil Surgeon of Saugor, the decrease would have been greater. In the
Feudatory States the decrease amounts to 5,311. The chief fall, in Bastar, was
probably due to the recent disturbances there. Of the 534,368 operations done
in British Territory, 467,457 were primary and the rest re-vaccinations, the
number of infants under one year vaccinated being 374,442.
Work done by Vaccinators.
4. The total number of vaccinations performed by vaccinators in the
Khalsa was 532,504 or only 5,437 less than in 1908-09,
which shows that notwithstanding the impediments men-
tioned, the staff worked energetically during the past year. The decrease occurred
in Saugor (—4,468), Damoh (—3,602), Jubbulpore (—1,357), Mandla (—1,325),
Narsinghpur (—2,448), Hoshangabad (—1,423), Nimar (—1,384), Seoni (—529),
Chhindwara(—32), Nagpur (—2,444), Akola (—3,255) and Buldana (—4,004)
and was due to causes explained in paragraph 3. In the Feudatory States,
the decrease amounted to 5,627, the decrease being chiefly, as has been stated,
in Bastar (—7,117).
5. There is considerable inequality in the amount of work as shown in the
column, " Average per Vaccinator." This will naturally depend upon the personal
equation, the sparsity of the population or on some disturbing influence, such as
plague, marriages, etc., but it would seem probable that a little more attention
given to the weekly and monthly reports might improve matters. In Damoh eight
vaccinators performed a total of 9,050 operations and of these 3,848 were done by