Report on the sanitary administration of the Punjab and proceedings of the Sanitary Board for the year ... and the report on sanitary works for.

  • Punjab (India). Sanitary Board.
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the sanitary administration of the Punjab and proceedings of the Sanitary Board for the year ... and the report on sanitary works for. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/86 (page 5)
    among Hindus and Muhammadans varied considerably in different districts. Such variations have been noticed in previous fever epidemics and are due to the cir¬ cumstances that in districts which show a higher Hindu death-rate the bulk of the Hindu population consists of poorer low caste tribes while in other districts with higher Muhammadan death-rate the poorer classes are largely Muhammadans. Muhammadans are generally poorer than Hindus and are not so well fed hr clothed, and are therefore less able to resist attacks of fever. The excess of the Muhammadan over the Hindu death-rate was most marked in the districts of Montgomery, Lahore, Amritsar, Sialkot, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Shah pur, Jhelum, Rawalpindi, Attock, Jhang and Layllpur, all of which, except Amritsar, contain more Muhammadans than Hindus and in which the fever mortality during the last three months was very high. The Hindu death-rate was more than 5 per mills of population in the districts of Rohtak, Delhi, Kangra, Ludhiana and Mianwali. The death-rate among Native Christians was 58-07 against 60-83 per mille in the previous year. The highest death-rates were recorded in the districts of Lyallpur, Gurdaspur, Kama], Sialkot, Rohtak and Gujranwala. .21. During the year under report the different inspecting agencies of the inspection of birth and province verified 678,148 entries in the birth and 553,576 death-registers. in the death-registers, the corresponding figures for the year preceding were 713,972 in the birth and 841,884 in the death-registers respectively. The decrease in 1908 in the number of entries checked is due to the fact that practically the whole of the inspecting staff was employed on Cholera duty when that disease was prevalent in the province in the summer and again in the distribution of quinine during the malarial season. The percentage of omissions discovered by Divisional Inspectors was 3*2 in male and 3'0 in female births, and 2*5 in male and 2*6 in female deaths. Vaccinators discovered a percentage of 1‘0 in male and 1*2 in female births and 0*7 in male and 0-8 in female deaths. The Revenue Officers found omissions of 0*8 per cent, of the entries checked in the birth-registers and 0*7 per cent, in the death-registers. The number of chawkidars punished was 191, and the fines inflicted amounted to Rs. 63 as compared with Rs. 90 in the previous year. Two hundred and twenty-one persons were punished for neglecting to register births and one hundred and five to register deaths in municipal towns and were fined Rs. 525 as against Rs. 371 in 1907. 22. The total number of births registered at Railway Stations outside municipal limits was 63 and of deaths 126, the corresponding Births and deaths among figures for the previous year being 67 and 172. Of these 126 ■stations.8 at aiway deaths, 24 were due to cholera, 35 to fevers, 38 to all other causes, 13 to plague, 3 to small-pox, 2 to dysentery and diarrhoea, 7 to diseases of the respiratory organs and 4 to injuries. The decrease in the total number of deaths in 1908 is due to the fact that only 13 deaths were registered under the head “ plague ” as against 97 in the year preceding. 23. There were 186 births and 141 deaths registered among Europeans Births and deaths among and Eurasians as against 148 and 67 in the year preceding. Europeans and Eurasians. Of the deaths 18 were due to cholera, 4 to small-pox, 32 to fevers, 8 to dysentery and diarrhoea, 20 to diseases of the respiratory organs, 4 to injuries and 55 to all other causes. Of the 18 deaths from cholera 10 occurred in Lahore during the months of May and June. The deaths from fevers which were four times as many as those registered in 1907 were due to the epidemic of malaria in the last quarter of the year. 24. The return of births and deaths among the non-military population of cantonments which was discontinued in the year 1901 has now again been included in this report in accordance with the suggestion of the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India and with the approval of the Punjab Government. In the cantonments in the Punjab, the statistics of which are given in appendix to Annual Form No. VI B, there were 3,339 births with a rate of 17 per mille and 4,4L5 deaths yielding a rate of 22. Of the total mortality 2,691 or about three-fifths were due to fevers, 1,107 to all other causes, 331 to diseases of the respiratory organs, 162 dysentery and diarrhoea, 50 to injuries, 43 to cholera, 17 to small-pox and 14 to plague. Births and deaths among the non-milita' y population of the cantonments. Appendix Ho. VI B. to Statement