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FRAGMENTS OF A PRISONER'S DIARY
rally so high because of the physical deterioration of the masses due to chronic malnutrition.
Cultural backwardness the absence of the understanding of the most elementary principles of hygiene and sanitatio-also plays its part in the tragic drama. But that again is the dire result of cconomic stagnation and deterioration. There is a high rate of mortality (von among those children who do not die either at birth or soon afterwards, --the foredoomed fifty per cent. That is largely due to the parents' inability to procure even the most minimum quantity or the requisitc alimentation. The want of mcilical aid is a contributing cause.
All these dismal facts raise the question whether the practice of birth-control could not be advantageously introduced in India. Of course, it gocs without saying that the device could possibly serve only as a temporary remedy for relieving the distress, particularly of the modern educated iniddle-class. The practice cannot be wide-spread in this country. To realise the necessity of birthcontrol and to practise it hygienically, the woman must attain a minimun level of modern cducation and general culture. That condition is absent in the case of the vast bulk of Indian womanhood. The multitude of them perform the process of reproduction almost like animals. Sex-intercourse is practised as a matter of habit, and even as a duty. Children are born at random. They are
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