No. 7517.

Extract from the Proceedings of the Chief Commissioner, Central Provinces, in
           the General Department, dated Nagpur, the 29th September 1897.

READ—

The Annual Statements of Vaccination Operations in the Central Provinces for the
year 1896-97, with notes by the Sanitary Commissioner.

READ ALSO—

The District Reports.

                                         RESOLUTION .

The total number of operations performed during the year by the Provincial
Vaccination Department is compared as follows with the operations during the
previous triennial period :—

The decrease begun in the previous year has therefore continued. Neverthe-
less, in view of the exceptional difficulties it had to contend with, it is, the Chief
Commissioner thinks, creditable to the Department that it should be able to show
so good an outturn of work as that exhibited above. The work of vaccination,
though performed sporadically during the hot weather, is chiefly carried on
during the winter months, from November to April. In 1896-97 this period
coincided with the establishment of famine conditions in fourteen out of the
eighteen districts of the Central Provinces, and the work of vaccination was
therefore much hampered. Vaccinators were in several districts withdrawn
from their proper duties for the Medical charge of famine camps and for other
work in connection with famine. Another burden extraneous to its proper work
which fell on the Department was duty in connection with plague inspections,
for which Vaccinators were employed at several railway stations.

Added to this was the falling off in the infant population caused by the
pressure of scarcity in the northern parts of the Province for a succession of
three years, and the deepening of distress into famine in the autumn of 1896.
The birth-rate for 1896 was 31.72 per 1,000 only, against a normal of over 40,
while the death-rate among children under one year of age was 318 against
a normal of 260. The vagrant habits induced by the pressure of distress,
especially among the aboriginal population, added to the difficulty of carrying out
vaccination work efficiently.

2. In the Feudatory States the number of operations fell from 65,690
primary and 12,592 re-vaccinations in the preceding year to 58,693 primary and
10,886 re-vaccinations in the year under report. The figures for Bamra and
Sonpur, which have not sent in returns this year, are excluded. The average
number of operations performed by each Vaccinator both in the Provinces and
Feudatory States was 1,519, or 221 less than during the previous year. The
number of vaccinations at dispensaries both in British and Feudatory territory was
16,773 against 15,775 in the previous season. The Chief Commissioner thinks
that returns of the work performed by the Municipal Vaccinators referred to in
paragraph 23 should also be reported. Column 4 of Statement 3 shows that this
is required.