ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the colonial rulers decidedly developed colonial infrastructure, with a view to extracting the resources of Rarh Bengal for colonial purposes. The colonial government concerned itself mainly with the maintenance of law and order, and collection of revenue and extraction of agricultural and mineral wealth, and showed little interest in resolving public health issues. The advance of railway network led to the proliferation of 'Burdwan Fever' which devastated numerous promising villages and struck a hard blow to the agricultural potential and public health in south-west Bengal. The question of public health and sanitation was indeed alarming to the labourers. The health care system remained underdeveloped or undeveloped during the colonial rule mainly because of low financial investment in this field. Underdevelopment of public health can easily be ascertained from the repeated inroads of communicable diseases in epidemic forms, prevalence of these diseases for a long time and the high mortality rate caused by them.
