| BRITISH INDIA | |
| Direct relief | $31,950,000 |
| Loss of revenue | 16,200,000 |
| Loans to farmers and native states | 21,300,000 |
| NATIVE STATES | |
| Relief expenditure and loss of revenue | 22,500,000 |
| ------------ | |
| Total | $91,950,000 |
"Some part of these loans and advances will eventually be repaid. But it is not a new thing for the government of India to relieve its people in times of distress. The frequent famines have been an enormous drain upon the resources of the empire."
The following table shows the expenditures for famine relief by the imperial government of India during the last twenty-one years:
| Five years, 1881-86 | $25,573,885 |
| Five years, 1886-91 | 11,449,190 |
| Five years, 1891-96 | 21,631,900 |
| 1896-1897 | 8,550,705 |
| 1897-1898 | 19,053,575 |
| 1898-1899 | 5,000,000 |
| 1899-1900 | 10,642,235 |
| 1900-1901 | 20,829,335 |
| 1901-1902 | 5,000,000 |
| -------------- | |
| Total (twenty-one years) | $127,730,825 |
Among the principal items chargeable to famine relief, direct and indirect, are the wages paid dependent persons employed during famines in the construction of railways and irrigation works, which, during the last twenty-one years, have been as follows:
|
Direct famine relief. |
Construction of railways. |
Construction of irrigation works. | |||
| Five years, '81-'86 | $379,760 | $9,113,165 | $3,739,790 | ||
| 1886-1891 | 277,030 | 666,665 | 1,384,570 | ||
| 1891-1896 | 411,065 | 12,056,505 | 921,675 | ||
| 1896-1897 | 6,931,750 | 156,100 | |||
| 1897-1898 | 17,752,025 | 125,055 | |||
| 1898-1899 | 133,515 | 2,301,175 | 38,900 | ||
| 1899-1900 | 10,375,590 | 119,650 | |||
| 1900-1901 | 20,626,150 | 155,570 | |||
| 1901-1902 | 2,645,905 | 353,465 | |||
| ------------- | ------------- | ------------- | |||
| Total (21 years) | $59,531,790 | $24,137,610 | $6,994,775 |
The chief remedies which the government has been endeavoring to apply are:
1. To extend the cultivated area by building irrigation works and scattering the people over territory that is not now occupied.
2. To construct railways and other transportation facilities for the distribution of food. This work has been pushed with great energy, and during the last ten years the railway mileage has been increased nearly 50 per cent to a total of more than 26,000 miles. About 2,000 miles are now under construction and approaching completion, and fresh projects will be taken up and pushed so that food may be distributed throughout the empire as rapidly as possible in time of emergency. Railway construction has also been one of the chief methods of relief. During the recent famine, and that of 1897, millions of coolies, who could find no other employment, were engaged at living wages upon various public works. This was considered better than giving them direct relief, which was avoided as far as possible so that they should not acquire the habit of depending upon charity. And as a part of the permanent famine relief system for future emergencies, the board of public works has laid out a scheme of roads and the department of agriculture a system of irrigation upon which the unemployed labor can be mobilized at short notice, and funds have been set apart for the payment of their wages. This is one of the most comprehensive schemes of charity ever conceived, and must commend to every mind the wisdom, foresight and benevolence of the Indian government, which, with the experience with a dozen famines, has found that its greatest difficulty has been to relieve the distressed and feed the hungry without making permanent paupers of them. Every feature of famine relief nowadays involves the employment of the needy and rejects the free distribution of food.
3. The government is doing everything possible to encourage the diversification of labor, to draw people from the farms and employ them in other industries. This requires a great deal of time, because it depends upon private enterprise, but during the last ten years there has been a notable increase in the number of mechanical industries and the number of people employed by them, which it is believed will continue because of the profits that have been realized by investors.