Ignorance or Poverty?

IN India it is generally assumed that the high rate of infant mortality recorded in towns and cities is due to the ignorance of women and want of medical and sanitary aid. In England, on the contrary, it is believed that the working class mother generally knows nearly as much as a wealthy and educated lady as regards a mother's care and duties over a baby, but that it is her economic and social environment, over which she has no control, which account for a comparatively high rate of infant mortality. We believe in Indian cities much the same thing can be said of a large class of fairly intelligent, though poor women, who suffer not so much on account of lack of knowledge or medical aid, as of their oppressive economic and social conditions. Overcrowding, want of pure air, light, pure water and milk are conditions which they are unable to overcome. When these disabilities are removed ignorance can be eliminated and it does not prove to be so fatal to child life as poverty.