INDIA'S CALAMITIES
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—A perusal of some figures recently issued by the Director of Public Health, Bengal, may prove of interest to readers of the Spectator. To some extent they are a measure of India's calamities. About 1,500,000 people are dying every year in the Province of Bengal alone. On an average 750,000 children under fifteen years of age die every year—about 50 per cent. of the total deaths. Twenty-five per cent. of the mortality is due to preventible diseases. Last year 120,000 people died of cholera—as far only as it is known—and 350,000 of malaria. (It may be asked, what must be the loss the country is suffering in meeting the funeral expenses of the dead, apart from all other expenses ?) Reported deaths from enteric are placed at 100,000 and from tuberculosis at about 350,000. The population of the Province is about half that of the British Isles. The death rate of Bengali infants is truly appalling. On an average 55,000 new-born babies die of tetanus every year. According to Dr. Bentley, the Director of Public Health, this is mainly due to ignorance and untrained village dhais (midwives).
Throughout the whole of the Province it is calculated that no less that 500,000 people are now suffering from tuberculosiS. Then there are the deaths from plague and smallpox.
According to an American estimate, an American new-born child was worth Rs.30,000 and boys and girls of school age were worth Rs.15,000. If the Bengali children are worth say 1 per cent. of the American children, then the loss of Bengal from the deaths of her boys and girls is Rs.3 crores (say £2,250,000 sterling) annually. Dr. Bentley further informs us that " the present people of Bengal, including the wealthy, are in a very large proportion taking to dietary on which even rats could not live for more than five weeks. That is why the death rate of Bengal was so high and why the Bengalis were physically weaker than their up-country neighbours. Their vitality being undermined by inadequate diet, they cannot stand the infection of foul diseases."
The Health Officer further tells us, " If I can only induce the leaders of the people to realize how urgent is the need of improving the physical well-being of the people of the Prov- ince, I am sure they will drop everything else and put the health of the people above all considerations. The question should be in the forefront of every public party." Yet the population of India has increased by 200,000,000 since the
days of Elphinstone and the " leaders of the people," led by Mr.- Gandhi are now clamouring for birth control. India's over-population it seems " constitutes a danger to her
civilization."—I am, Sir, &c., J. D. JENKINS. Poona, India.
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