ABSTRACT
In making our recommendations, we are asked to bear in mind both the resources of Mauritius and the needs of its people. We have interpreted these in broad terms. The social services which a country requires depend on a variety of factors. They depend on the history of the country insofar as these affect social, economic and cultural determinants. They depend upon the ethnic composition of the country and its social structure. They depend on religious and political factors, the quality of the administration, and on the viability of the economy. We have had not only to take account of the past and present of Mauritius, but to form some view of the future to which the population aspires. Mauritius is in a state of rapid change from a low-income cash economy with a strong and extensive kinship system to a society which aspires to a higher national income per head and to a more westernised way of life.
