Calcutta Diary

A M ABJURE adjectives, let facts speak for themselves. Certainly, There is Little doubt that, once the grim season passes, some kind of a Famine En- quiry Commission will be launched, and it will duly present a report analysing the factors which caused this year's tragedy. Perhaps, a few months hence, the National Sample Survey Organisation will undertake a sample study on the incidence of starvation deaths which wouId occur, district-wise, taluka-wise, village-wise There will be impressive-looking schedules attached to the questionnaire : description of the household whether it was a cultivating or non- cultivating one; whether owning or not owning land; if owning land the size of the holding; the quantity of cereal consumption per capita during the preceding month or the preceding quarter; what consumer durables the household possesses; whether the household disposed of any such durables in the course of the preceding week or the preceding fortnight or the preceding quarter; in case it did, what was the realisation in cash or in kind; did any deaths from starvation take place during the preceding week, the preceding month, the preceding quarter; were any of these deaths certified by a physician; if not, the reasons for non-obtaining of certificate; if the deaths were certified by a physician, was the latter a degree-holder, or a licenciate, an allopath or a homeopath; were the deaths because of (a) lack of food, (b) lack of nutritive balance of intake, or (e) indeterminable factors; were doles available in the village, or in the taluka; if not, were they available within 10 miles of the homestead, 15 miles, 20 miles; were gruel kitchens operating in the village, or in the taluka; if not, within 10 miles of the homestead, 15 miles, 20 miles; what was the price of rice, variety-wise, in the village and in the taluka during the preceding week, the preceding month, the preceding quarter; was work available in the village or in the taluka during the preceding week, the preceding month, the preceding quarter; in ease the answer to the last question is in the affirmative, what was the wage rate, in cash or in kind, in the village and in the taluka.