MUNICIPAL
DEPARTMENT.
SANITATION.
CALCUTTA, THE 30TH JULY 1902.
RESOLUTION—No. 1962S.
READ—
The Triennial Report on Vaccination in Bengal for the years 1899-1900, 1900-1901,
and 1901-1902.
Read again—
The Triennial Report on Vaccination in Bengal for the years 1896-97, 1897-98, and
1898-99, and the Resolution recorded by Government thereon.
THE report, which was due to Government on 1st June, was received on
4th July. The delay is unexplained, and is not compensated for by any special
merits in the report.
2. There was an increase of operations, as compared with the last trien-
nial period, amounting to 6 per cent. in rural areas and 13 per cent. in
municipalities and dispensaries. In Calcutta the increase was 64 per cent.
The increase in rural areas and mufassal municipalities would, it is said, have
been greater, if plague had not interfered with the work of vaccination.
This cause had clearly no effect in Calcutta, where the plague was worst.
A large proportion of the vaccinations in Calcutta, however, are secondary,
while the vaccination of infants is known to be in an unsatisfactory state.
This has attracted the attention of the Lieutenant-Governor, and measures
are being taken by the Corporation to improve it, by providing a better
system of registration of births, and by increasing the number of vaccination
stations and rendering them more attractive.
3. The average work of a vaccinator has considerably increased during
the triennium. In rural areas the increase from 620 to 793 is due to the
exclusion of apprentices and the work done by them from the calculation.
No explanation is given of the increase of work in Calcutta from 542 cases per
vaccinator to 1,013. In the mufassal municipalities the increase from 482 to
569 operations is attributed to the greater activity of the Department owing
to the strictures of Government in past Resolutions, but there is room for still
further improvement. It is now estimated that, on an average, 1,060
operations are performed by each paid vaccinator, against 944 by licensed
agency. The question of the relative merits of the licensed and paid systems is
under consideration, and Government reserves its judgment on the subject
until the Sanitary Commissioner has reported on it.
4. The increase of vaccination in rural areas and mufassal towns is small,
and the Lieutenant-Governor trusts that the wakened interest of Magistrates
and Civil Surgeons will be maintained. The increase in the districts of
Mymensingh (43,215), Midnapore (35,927), 24-Parganas (33,177) is noticeable,
but it is unfortunately due mainly to the prevalence of the severe epidemic of
small-pox with which these districts were visited. The explanation given by
the Sanitary Commissioner for the fluctuations in different districts is altogether
insufficient, when they occur in neighbouring districts as Shahabad (15 per mille)
and Gaya (28 per mille). In the former district the number of vaccinations
was only 9.76 per mille in 1899-1900, while the average of the Patna Division
was 23 per mille. Similar fluctuations are noticeable elsewhere. This point has
been repeatedly noticed, and the Lieutenant-Governor regrets to find that Major
Dyson has done little or nothing to examine and account for the discrepancies
between the returns of different districts or, by personal supervision of the staff,
to bring backward districts nearer the level of their neighbours.
5. The Sanitary Commissioner reports an improvement during the
triennium in the protection afforded to the infant population. His conclusions
are based on an arbitrary ratio of births of 50 per mille instead of the actual