Food Dear, Malnutrition Endemic In West Bengal

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30562, 3 October 1964, Page 2

Food Dear, Malnutrition Endemic In West Bengal

“Before I came away many people were living on one rice meal a day, with perhaps a few vegetables and lentils. It is a poor area and there is a great deal of malnutrition,” said Miss Elizabeth Purchas, who is in Christchurch on furlough from the Doyabari Christian Hospital, 46 miles north of Calcutta in West Bengal, India.

Miss Purchas. who did her general nursing training in Christchurch and is making her first visit home in four and a half years, is nursing superintendant of the 60-bed children’s and women’s hospital, which has its own nursing training school.

“By New Zealand standards, most of the people there would be suffering from malnutrition in some degree.” said Miss Purchas yesterday. It was not so much a shortage of food, but the exorbitant cost of it. It would take about five rupees to correctly feed a family of say, 10, Miss Purchas said. But an average working man earned only two rupees a day (about 3s).

Food sent by a relief organisation—powdered milk, cereal, corn, rice and fats—for which she was the “contact” distributor in the district were vital. The bales of clothes sent by C.0.R.5.0., from New Zealand, were also welcome because with all money being spent on food, there was nothing for the clothing of a family, she said. “We receive two or three bales of clothing, much of it from Christchurch, each year. Nothing is wasted. If the garments are not what are required, they are cut down and remade.” Incorrect feeding was another cause of malnutrition. “We often have children of wealthy parents suffering from it. These rich children are usually kept inside the family’s big house, so they don’t even get the health benefit from the sun as the poorer ones do,” she said. Encouraged To Watch Mothers are encouraged to come to the hospital nursery to see how the children were fed there. “They are amazed that babies of five and six months can eat solid food. The practice there is to feed babies after they have been weaned from their mother, on sago and water until they are about two. You can imagine how much good that is to them.” This demonstration of new. better methods was much more likely to succeed than just telling as the people were slow to learn new ways. Another example of practical help was an agricultural project in a village nearby. This was a model farm financed by the Oxford University famine relief organisation, Oxfam, and was being established by a New Zealander from Auckland. When a suitable Indian was found, the running of the farm would be handed over to him, so that he would continue the education of his countrymen. The aim was to make missionary work indiginous in India. Fewer European Christian workers were there than before, Miss Purchas said. “It is not very much iise our having been there at all if we have not taught .the Indians to carry on by themselves. We are building up our Christian Indian workers so that the work may Ije continued should we leave,” she said. Attitude to Work Part of the agricultural project in India would have to be to teach men that they needed education to become good farmers. At present it

was not considered correct for an educated man to work on the land. He wanted a white collar job, and often there were not enough jobs where the educated could use their learning.

Agricultural development and family planning were the main hopes for India in the future, Miss Purchas said. Families could range up to 16, 18 or 20 children. “But only eight or nine may grow up. Infant mortality in the first two years is very high, frequently from dysentry. “We must help these babies and children survive; which means that we must help women to reduce the number of babies that they have.” Individual Instruction . After the. birth of their seventh or eighth baby, women would ask advice in' family planning at the hospital. Women were instructed individually, rather than in classes, she said. Midwifery is an important ! part of the Doyahapi Hospii tai’s function. In the 13 years i she has been there, Miss ' Purchas has seen great in- . creases in the number of i women who wish to come into t hospital to have their babies, I and attend ante-natal clinics. Miss Purchas instructs the student nurses who enter the

training school. All the : nurses at the hospital are Bengali, or Sentali girls. “They make wonderful . nurses. They have endless patience,” Miss Purchas said. She will return to India next month.