Abstract
THE chief vital statistical figures for British India for 1933 are: (1) total births, 9,678,876, giving a crude birth-rate of 35.5 per mille, (2) total deaths numbered 6,096,787, giving a crude death-rate of 22.4 per mille, (3) infantile deaths numbered 1,650,973, an infantile death-rate per 1,000 births of 170.5 (Ann. Rep. of the Public Health Commissioner with the Government of India for 1933. Government of India Press, New Delhi. Rs.6 as.4 or 10s.). The birthrate is more than double, the death-rate nearly double, and the infant mortality about two and a half times, the corresponding figures for England and Wales. It is remarked that, contrary to some recent statements, the population of India is increasing at an alarming rate, and by 1941 will probably reach 400 millions. The total land area of British India amounts to only 2.44 acres per head of the population, but allowing for forest, uncultivated and fallow lands, only 0.72 acre per head is under food crops?? quite insufficient for even the present population. Birth-control is viewed sympathetically, but only seven hundred medical women are available to instruct Indian women about it. Cholera deaths (68,318) and plague deaths (43,000) are not nearly so high as in some years, but smallpox deaths numbered 103,000, compared with 45,000 during the previous year—a disconcerting rise.
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Indian Vital Statistics for 1933. Nature 138, 159 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/138159b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/138159b0