[Reader-list] Rockefeller Foundation Fifth Post

[burton cleetus]

While the activities of the Rockefeller foundation in
Travancore had been variously highlighted, A working
paper by Kabir at CDS seeks to figure out the larger
politics that underlay the philanthropy of the
foundation. He argues that Travancore provided the
ideal situation for the Foundation to carry forward
their experiment and to find solutions on the various
diseases with which the foundation were already
familiar with. He argues that Travancore provided the
ideal place, for the foundation, to ‘stimulate
progress, bring about experimentation, demonstrate new
methods and increase efficiency’.

The argument hitherto raised in this context is that
the socio-political and scientific interests of the
foundation therefore centered on the persistence of
communicable and preventive diseases in many parts of
the less developed regions across the globe as a cover
to pursue their larger objectives. The Annual Report
of the Foundation in 1926, notes, “The unswerving
spirit of the foundation was to stimulate progress,
bring about experimentation, demonstrate new methods
and increase efficiency”. 

The foundation received applications from three states
namely Travancore, Burma, and Punjab for assistance in
the implementation of Public health institutions in
their states, while the applications of the two former
states were accepted, the application of Punjab was
turned down. Though no reason was sited for turning
down the application, it seems that the low literacy
rate of Punjab might have worked against its favour in
the consideration of the application. While Travancore
had a literacy rate of 28.9% and Burma had a literacy
rate of 36.8% Punjab’s literacy rate was as low as
6.3%.

One of the major activity of the foundation was the
public health education teams constituted for the
creation of the awareness among the people on health
issues, the teams surveyed the areas and gave
lectures, distributed pamphlets and distributed
lanterns etc, they distributed pamphlets which gave
detail descriptions on the origin and the causes of
the diseases and their spread.

In Thiruvananthapuram the public health personal under
the guidance of the foundation representative showed
that Filariasis was transmitted by Culex fatigans,
which multiplied in the masonry drains and their
fallouts and contrary to the popular belief, ponds
rice fields and swamps were not responsible for the
output of the species. Similarly the water plant named
Pistia found in Ambalapuzha, cherthala and other parts
of the Alapuzha district were considered as the cause
of the spread of the disease. The foundation decided
to continue with sanitary and health care systems that
were prevalent in Travancore prior to their arrival
and therefore an extension of the then existing
sanitary and health care measures that the Travancore
state was ‘successfully’ pursuing before the arrival
of the foundation. 

The foundation was of the opinion that the ill effects
of Hookworm disease, and the nature of its causes and
spread could be easily explained to the people.
Propaganda measures for the creation of awareness
among the people included charts, which demonstrated, 

1.a) Male and female hookworms very much enlarged
  b) Male and female hookworms natural size
  c) Hookworm egg greatly enlarged. Note that the
hookworm egg, like a hen’s egg,has a shell, a white
and a yolk
2.a) two hookworm eggs greatly enlarged. In one,
segmentation is well underway; in the other, the
completely formed embryo is ready to hatch; b)Young
hookworm in infecting stage; c) a late stage of ground
itch. 
3) Outline he course of Hookworm through the body from
the time they penetrate the skin until they are lodged
in the intestines.
5)a) Male and female hookworms attached to a piece of
the bowel. Note sores and ulcerations in the lining of
the bowel where hookworms were once attached;
b) Parts of greatly enlarged body and head of adult
hookworm attached to human intestine; the mouth
encloses a large mass of mucosa; c) enlargement of
head of the same Hookworm showing limits of mouth
cavity and both pairs of teeth. 
6.Hookworm larvae penetrating the skin greatly
enlarged. The drawings show the relative size of the
larvae and the delicate fissures in the skin; b)
number of Hookworms in subcutaneous tissue. 

While it was realised that the ill effects of hookworm
could be easily explained to the people, the same was
not the case with Malaria, it was noted that before
malaria control measures can be undertaken on an
economic basis, it would seem advisable to obtain the
services of a competent entomologist, otherwise the
expenditure might include the control of mosquitoes,
which are not malaria carriers. Malaria was understood
as a highly specialized public health problem and
methods of control vary in different localities in the
same country and even in the same district.



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