The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-06-26
By E. G.

BY E. G.
CALCUTTA boasts the honor of being "the
second city of the Empire" Such "honors"
usually have to be paid for, and the Calcutta
workers pay for it by the most fearful over
neutrality-suspicious. which directly causes
the death of thousands every year. Calcutta
has still another "honor"-an honor" which
it never has to yield except to another Indian
city, such as Bombay, Madras, etc.--the honor
of having the highest death rate of any city
in the world.
Let us see what this means. No one would
call London specially healthful city. On an
average, III people out of every thousand in
London die every year. But in Calcutta Tin
1920 the death rate was 34.7 per thousand!
And in many years, the Calcutta death-rate
is surpassed by other Indian cities. Thus in
1925, to take few examples, the death rate
of Benares was 46.1, Poona had 34.4, Bonn
bay 27.5 lit rose again next year to 32.7), and
Madras had 479!
Captain Wedgwood Benn, the Labor" Par
TVS Minister of Imperialism for India, IN an
interview given to the press few days ago,
was good enough to admit that some of the
conditions of the Indian masses are pretty
bad, but pointed to the "great progress" that
has been made under British rule-in health
and sanitation among other things. Let US
check up on this great progress" by taking
the figures for Calcutta for the last forty
years. In 1889, the death rate was 2S.7; IN
1897 36.1; in 1914, 28.3; in 1918, $50; in
1926, BAT Thus after forty years of British
progress" the death rate of the Calcutta
workers is worse than before. Needless to
say, the death rate in the European quarters
of the Indian cities is only about one-third or
one-fourth as high as in the native quarters.
Worst Slums in the World.
Bombay has long been famous for possess
ing "the worst slums in the world" But this
phrase conveys nothing compared to an ac-
tual description of the conditions under which
the workers are forced to live. The follow
ing is taken from report of a British SAM
tation commission: Large areas of Byculla
"a section of Bombay are without drains, and
buildings in other portions of the city where
there are no drains, are on such low ground
that they cannot be drained More than half
of Khetwadi has buildings that heavy rains
leave standing in sewage and water.
'The worst descriptions apply perhaps to
the great chawls workers tenements) in the
industrial areas. On the ground floor OF
typical chawl is a narrow central passage
running the entire length of the building. Al
one end is the opening into the street, at the
other is latrine common to the floor on one
side and the fresh water cstern on the other.
FROM this central passage uOOio oPSii oli S"Ni
side into small cubcles (cell-lke rooms). The
floor of the cubicles is of mud, the partitions
of wood or small sticks plastered with mud.
There is no window, no chimney, no light or
ventilation, save such as penetrate through
the doorway from the dimly-lighted central
passage The interior was reported as pitch
dark at midday.
"The cubicles were normally ten feet square,
and eight to ten feet high. The number OF
persons who sleep in them is usually limited
only by the floor space, for on rainy night,
sleeping out of doors being impossible, they
are like sardines in tin. The central pas
sages of many of the chawls that were visited
were nearly dark and were filthy with moist
mud and human excrement-and the sole
means for admission of the air into the small
dwellings, was through these passages. Over
these passages in many chawls there is con-
slant flow of fluid containing excreta. No
less than 80 per cent of the chawls in this
neghborhood were in similarly bad condi-
tion."
In another chawl, the dwellings, were de-