44
There is an universal belief that when coolies become sick they
are fed and looked after by their sardar, a belief that has received
expression in Mr. Arbuthnott's Report in 1904, and again in the Pro-
ceedings of the Assam Labour Enquiry Committee, who visited the
Duars in 1906 (vide page 126).
"When coolies get sick the sardar sees that they are fed and.
looked after until they recover; beyond the cost of medi-
cines and medical attendance the garden is put to no ex-
pense in dieting sick coolies ".
That such a statement can have been made shows that the real
conditions are unrecognised. The relation between the sardar and
his coolies are upon a much less philanthropic footing, as will be
seen later, and there is no reason to believe that in the Duars, where
sickness is a constant occurrence and a very serious item in the life of
a labourer, arrangements can be with advantage left to the sardar.
No doubt cases of hardship that come to the notice of the manager
are relieved; but here again the planter in the Duars is, under the
existing system, rarely brought into such close personal contact with
the bulk of his coolies as to make such incidents more than occasional
acts of charity. There is an attempt at giving medicine to sick
coolies ; but by no possible pretence, as we shall see later, can the exist-
ing arrangements for treating sickness in the Duars be called even rea-
sonably adequate. There is no hospital in the district; and the so-called
dispensaries, which are little more than mere stores of drugs, in the
absence of proper medical arrangements, for the most part serve ineffi-
ciently the purpose for which they are intended. Arrangements for
medical supervision are as we shall see, hopelessly inadequate; and the
doctor babus to whom the treatment of many hundreds or thousands
of coolies on a garden is relegated are in the great majority of cases
unqualified, ignorant and incompetent.
We have not heard of the establishment in any part of the dis-
trict of an institution in the nature of a coolie serai or any arrange-
ments for supplying suitable diet to the sick or providing necessary
food to the needy ; and no one appears to think such a thing necessary,