DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24890#0044
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The principle which guided and inspired the adminis-
tration of relief was at an early date declared in the following
words :—
“The only limitation to the relief to be given will be
the necessities of the people.”
It is believed that this principle is reflected and pre-
served in each branch of the relief system of these Provinces
now to he described. But the task of making each department
instinct with this principle, and at the same time safeguarding it
from dishonesty and lavishness, committed the Administration
to constant struggles with chicanery and deceit. It is not sug-
gested that assistance never reached those who might have dis-
pensed with it, or that it was never intercepted, or that impos-
ture was always unsuccessful. To the importunacies of the
multitudes to be dealt with, there was no limit or restraint,
while rapacious subordinates could not always be at once
detected. But as the staff settled down to their work, the
opportunities for deception or peculation were narrowed
down, till it is believed that from an early stage of the oper-
ations but little Government money reached the hands of
any who did not stand in real need of it.
The relief system prescribed by the Famine Code may
be classified as follows:—
I.—Employment on large relief works entered on the
administrative programme (Article 17 of the Code)
and controlled by the Department of Public Works.
II.—Employment on small relief works (Article 65 of
the Code) controlled by District Officers.
III. —Employment at their homes for indigent respect-
able people who are incapable of labour on relief
works or debarred by national custom from appear-
ing in public.
IV. -—Gratuitous distribution of relief in poorhouses, State
kitchens and hospitals to the poor and infirm unable
to labour, until they had have become fit to labour,
or to be sent back to their homes.
V.—Gratuitous distribution of relief at their homes to
persons who are unable to labour and are reduced to
distress.
Belief Works.
The first, and numerically the most important, form was
relief works designed to afford employment to all who could
not find it elsewhere and could not subsist without it. It was
a cardinal principle of relief administration in the North-
Western Provinces and Oudh that some labour should be
exacted from everyone seeking relief who was not incapacitat-
ed for work by age or infirmity, or in rare cases (chiefly in case
of women) by social status. From the able-bodied a full task,
The principle which guided and inspired the adminis-
tration of relief was at an early date declared in the following
words :—
“The only limitation to the relief to be given will be
the necessities of the people.”
It is believed that this principle is reflected and pre-
served in each branch of the relief system of these Provinces
now to he described. But the task of making each department
instinct with this principle, and at the same time safeguarding it
from dishonesty and lavishness, committed the Administration
to constant struggles with chicanery and deceit. It is not sug-
gested that assistance never reached those who might have dis-
pensed with it, or that it was never intercepted, or that impos-
ture was always unsuccessful. To the importunacies of the
multitudes to be dealt with, there was no limit or restraint,
while rapacious subordinates could not always be at once
detected. But as the staff settled down to their work, the
opportunities for deception or peculation were narrowed
down, till it is believed that from an early stage of the oper-
ations but little Government money reached the hands of
any who did not stand in real need of it.
The relief system prescribed by the Famine Code may
be classified as follows:—
I.—Employment on large relief works entered on the
administrative programme (Article 17 of the Code)
and controlled by the Department of Public Works.
II.—Employment on small relief works (Article 65 of
the Code) controlled by District Officers.
III. —Employment at their homes for indigent respect-
able people who are incapable of labour on relief
works or debarred by national custom from appear-
ing in public.
IV. -—Gratuitous distribution of relief in poorhouses, State
kitchens and hospitals to the poor and infirm unable
to labour, until they had have become fit to labour,
or to be sent back to their homes.
V.—Gratuitous distribution of relief at their homes to
persons who are unable to labour and are reduced to
distress.
Belief Works.
The first, and numerically the most important, form was
relief works designed to afford employment to all who could
not find it elsewhere and could not subsist without it. It was
a cardinal principle of relief administration in the North-
Western Provinces and Oudh that some labour should be
exacted from everyone seeking relief who was not incapacitat-
ed for work by age or infirmity, or in rare cases (chiefly in case
of women) by social status. From the able-bodied a full task,