By Daniela Castillo
Access to medical services in British India was heavily influenced by gender. Although the percentage of the Indian population that attended hospitals was only around 2.5% (Lal 39), there was a significant disparity between the number of spaces available for men and women in hospitals, dispensaries, and even asylums. This article focuses on the accommodation gap among male and female hospitals and health centres in 19th and 20th century British India using reports provided by the National Library of Scotland.
For this study, I conducted research on AntConc using the keywords ‘female* hospital*‘ and ‘male* hospital*‘ and compared the content of both queries. The term ‘female* hospital‘ had 117 appearances, while ‘male* hospital*‘ had 22 appearances. I reviewed every file and discarded the ones that were repetitive or did not offer relevant information regarding the number of beds or conditions in hospitals and health centres. Once the data was cleaned, I analysed each of them individually and compared the context in which both terms were used.
All of the analysed documents that mentioned space availability reported a higher number of beds for male patients. The only exception was found in a 1909 document from a Mandras Asylum stating the construction of a new hospital accommodated 20 beds in the female enclosure and only 16 single rooms for male occupants. Nevertheless, it also mentioned that the building had four single rooms for Europeans in the male ward.
In the rest of the documents, the disparity was evident. Hospitals and health centres in Mandras, Calicut and Vizagapatam consistently reported a higher accommodation capacity for male patients (see table 1).
Table 1. Spaces available for males and females in the medical facilities of Mandras, Calicut and Vizagapatam.
| Hospital/Health Centre Location | Male Spaces
|
Female Spaces | Additional Notes |
|
Mandras |
92 | 20 | N/A* |
| 80 | 20 | Proposal for a new Asylum. These numbers were just estimates. | |
| 89 | 63 | Spaces available in the quarters for European patients. | |
| 460 | 84 | Spaces available in the quarters for native patients. | |
| 96 | 36 | N/A | |
|
Calicut |
9 | 6 | N/A |
| 12 | 6 | The female hospital in the area was condemned as ‘unsuitable‘. | |
| 16 | 10 | The document also reported the construction of a new male hospital with the capacity to treat 12 additional patients. | |
|
Vizagapatam |
17 | N/A | There was no designated space for females, they were treated in the general ward. |
*N/A: not applicable, the document did not offer additional information about the hospitals and the spaces available.
Calicut also reported having a hospital without a separate accommodation for females. Women were treated in one of the cells in the female enclosure that was suitable for eight patients. It did not specify how many spaces were available at the male hospital. Additionally, a document in Mandras stated that the Hospital for Women and Children was unable to provide adequate treatment for patients and that a proper female hospital was necessary (See figure 1).
Figure 1. Screenshot of the search term ‘female* hospital*‘ which shows a document from the Mandras region.
The reasons for this bias are multiple. During the first half of the 19th century, the medical system was mainly dominated by males. Hospitals focused most of their efforts on male patients, and they were also operated almost entirely by male doctors and medical professionals. Female’s health was neglected, and their attendance rate to hospitals and dispensaries was extremely low (Mukherjee 1183).
According to the Bengal Dispensary Reports of 1885, male patients had an attendance rate of 59.56%; however, the female attendance rate was only 16.99%. Similar percentages were found in the hospitals and medical centres in Calcutta (Lal 41).
Although the systematic discrimination against women was one of the main factors behind the male and female hospital disparity, it is only one of the many interrelated constraints that prevented Indian women from accessing medical aid.
Mary Scharlieb, a London gynaecologist (Lal 39), stated that a big part of India's female population disliked receiving treatment by male doctors. Female modesty was a predominant value in Indian colonial society. Women refused to consult a man doctor or were even restricted by family members to see one even if their lives were in danger. One of the Medical History of British India records reasserted this tendency, stating that certain females had to be examined exclusively by women physicians (see figure 2).
Figure 2. Screenshot of the searchterm ‘female* hospital*‘ explaining the examination procedure for female patients.
However, Indian female doctors were scarce, and women's training in the medical field was often opposed by male medical professionals (Mukherjee 1184).
Additionally, stoicism was another cultural factor that prevented Indian female patients from seeking medical attention. Disclosing their complaints and physical illnesses to their husbands or health professionals was not a common practice among women. Lady Dufferin, one of the leading advocates of female healthcare in India, described native women as patient, long-suffering, and unselfish, which made it difficult for them to do anything for themselves (Roberts 452). This belief led Indian women to care more for their husbands and children, neglecting their own health in the process.
The medical knowledge within the household also needs to be considered. The majority of Indian women had a basic understanding of domestic healing or relied on midwives and other members of the community to tend their health instead of travelling long distances to seek medical help in a hospital (Lal 47).
This analysis has shown that female hospitals offered fewer spaces for patients than male hospitals. Male health centres were able to accommodate a higher number of individuals and, on some occasions, quarters specifically designed for females were not available or in poor conditions, and patients had to be treated in general wards or cells.
Gender discrimination and Indian cultural values of modesty and selflessness affected women's attendance in hospitals and access to health services. These elements limited the number of beds available for them and created an evident disparity between the accommodation provided for male and female patients, preventing women from receiving proper health care.
Works Cited
LAL, MANEESHA. “The Politics of Gender and Medicine in Colonial India: The Countess of Dufferin's Fund, 1885-1888.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 68, no. 1, 1994, pp. 29–66. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44451545. Accessed 5 Dec. 2020.
Mukherjee, Sujata. “WOMEN AND MEDICINE IN COLONIAL INDIA: A CASE STUDY OF THREE WOMEN DOCTORS.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 66, 2005, pp. 1183–1193. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44145930. Accessed 5 Dec. 2020.
Roberts, Daniel Sanjiv. “‘Merely Birds of Passage’: Lady Hariot Dufferin’s Travel Writings and Medical Work in India, 1884-1888.” Women’s History Review, vol. 15, no. 3, July 2006, pp. 443–457. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=2007390802&site=ehost-live.
