Diseases in Orissa of Eastern India: A Brief Account of the History of Smallpox and Cholera in Mayurbhanj, 1905-60

The present study deals with the health scenario in the region of Mayurbhanj in the state of Orissa in eastern India, how and to what extent both the colonial and post-colonial governments implemented their respective medical or health care policies for the development of the common people or the masses during the five and a half decades. During the period under study from 1905 to 1960 the death rate from various diseases was ups and downs during the colonial period and even also in the post-colonial times. The question can be raised, the colonial health care policies implemented in India since long for the development of the health condition for the common masses. Numbers of people lost their lives due to improper implementation of the health care or vaccination policies, smallpox and cholera these two diseases were especially significant because of its death rate and number of deaths from these diseases. Sometimes some year the death rate from these diseases was a tiny percent and the very next year it becomes so high, the question then arise whether the colonial health care policies which was functioning in the state it was pro-people policy or colonial oriented. For the well and smooth function of the medical and health care system, the government of India introduced Montague-Chelmsford Reforms 1919, placed public health matters under the Provincial Governments. Popularly elected Indian ministers holding the portfolio of Local Self-Government. In Orissa the public health bill passed in 1946, the Mayurbhanj state merged with Indian state two years after this bill. The question is why the development of health scenario stagnated even in the post-colonial times.