Burma: Census of India 1901 Vol. I - Khamkoo

Northern
REPORT ON THE CENSUS OF BURMA. .) I °3
152. Unlike the figures for the other infirmities which show a continued fallm
Bii d s b a e- e ' a & °^ a^ter a certam a ge nas been reached, the ratios
r
!
of the blind to the total population maintain an almost
uninterrupted rise up to the last. This does not mean, as it would in the "case of
deaf-mutism have meant, that the blind die off more slowly than, those who
have not lost their sight, but merely that each year the ranks of the blind receive
reinforcements from those who have not up till then lost their eyesight at a rate
more rapid than that at which they are depleted by death. We thus find that, of
the total of blind in the province on the 1st March 1901, that is to say, out of 5,556
males and 5,966 females, no less than 1 ,87 males and 2,855 females are of the age
1
of 60 and over. In 1891, it may be noted, the proportion borne by these aged
blind to the total afflicted was even larger, being 39' 1 and 52*3 per cent, as compared
with 33"6 and 479 in 190 1. The high percentage of the afflicted among
the females seems a further indication of the fact that a very large portion of the
blindness in the province is to be classed as senile, and the divergencies in the
totals of blind women of 60 years and above at the last and at the preceding
enumeration (2,855 against 4,477) are significant of the scope that exists for difference
of opinion as to whether this or the other dim-eyed crone should properly
be treated as blind or not. To me the figures show conclusively that the test
applied at the recent census was stricter than that applied ten years earlier.
153. According to the returns there were 2,940 male and 1,250 female
. lepers in Burma on the 1st March 1 90 1. Here, as in
the case of the other " scheduled " infirmities, there is
a notable decrease on the figures for the previous census, when the totals were 4,543
and 1,921 for the two sexes. It is rather early in the day to ascribe much of this
decrease to the benefits of segregation effected by the leper asylums, of which
there are two in Mandalay and one in Rangoon. The difference is, I believe,
mainly due to more careful enumeration, but I should hesitate to say that we
should not be justified in according the excellent institutions referred to some
small portion of the credit for the improvement in the figures. By the next
census it is to be hoped that they will have made their influence indisputably felt.
The map showing the distribution of leprosy appended to this chapter shows that
this disease, like insanity, appears to prevail more in the west than in the east, and
to flourish more in the dry than in the wet areas of the province, though it is
Northern Arakan that shows the highest percentage of lepers to total population.
For the reasons assigned above in the case of blindness, I should not be disposed
to attach any great importance to the Arakan
.
figures. There seems,
however, to be no direct relation between rainfall and leprosy ; for though the
Upper Burma dry division shows by far the highest figures (82 males and 39
females per 1 00,000 of the population), the Lower Burma littoral figures are higher
on the whole than those for the Upper Burma wet division. In every district in the
province except one (Myitkyina) the male exceed the female lepers in number, in
most cases very largely. The Myitkyina figures are small, far smaller than the
average, and are possibly slightly defective. For the province as a whole the ratio
is 56 males and 25 females in every 100,000 of the sex concerned. Subsidiary
Table No. VI IC tells us that the ravages of leprosy are more marked among the
Chins than among any other of the indigenous races of the province.
1 54. Turning to the figures for leprosy by age-periods we find that, up to the
age of 10 there is comparative immunity from the
Leprosy by age-period*
dJsease ^ .^
.
thg facf
.^the tota]s foj second qu jn _
quennium are lower than those for the first, strikes one as an indication that, of the
few children that are attacked in early life, a fairly large proportion are liable to
succumb before very long to disease in some form or other. With the entry into
the third quinquennium the proportion of lepers rises very considerably—the increase
being more marked among the males than the females— and continues to
rise on the whole till the 30—35 age-period is reached. After this death carries
away more from the total than disease adds to it, so that, from 426 males and 1 50
female lepers in 100,000 of each sex, the proportion dwindles down to 126 and 56,
respectively, at the 55—60 age-period. The data show what is manifestly clear from
independent evidence, namely, that lepers are a short-lived race. The age-period