ments of over 6 lakhs Ibs. And the Government has
the monopoly of cinchona.
Medical services in India are hopelessly inade-
quate. The total number of hospitals and dispensaries
throughout British India is less than 7,000. Each serves,
therefore, on an average 13,000 persons in urban and
53,000 people in rural areas. There are only 226 spe-
cial women's hospitals. That is, there is only one
hospital for 43,000 persons and one bed for 4,000.
There are about 42,000 doctors, of whom two-
thirds are licentiates; one doctor for 50,000 people!
This total is less than Japan's whose population is
about the same as that of Bengal. If we are to have
one doctor per 2,000 of population, India would require
200,000 doctors, that is 5 times the present number.
In ILK., in 1938, there were 3,261 welfare centres
and a staff equivalent to the whole time services of
2,900 health visitors for a population of 41 millions. In
India, in 1939, for a ten-fold population, there were
only 1,020 centres, a mere apology!
The total number of trained nurses in the country
is 6,130 and the number of women doctors with special
training in maternity and child-welfare work through-
out India is less than 50.
In India, the first medical school was opened in
1822. Medical Colleges in Madras and Calcutta were
started in 1835. Midwifery training in Madras was
Started in 1854. And these are the results to date. As
against this in Great Britain there were 110,000 nurses
and 61,500 doctors, that is, two nurses to each doctor
and a doctor for every 775 people.
Scarcely any effective social and economic mea-
sures are adopted for the maintenance of health.
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