107 বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ চতুর্দশ খন্ড The nulls' hospital is something of a special case, because it is new and has private funds; few hospitals in Nadia can afford to spend even 60 rupees on each patient. The Krishnanagar hospital is more typical. Normally equipped to handle 25 patients, it now accommodates more than 400, many of whom huddle with their families under a vast orange tent that has been set up next to the building itself. The supply of sheets ran out long ago, and most of the mattresses have been contaminated by body wastes. The patients lie on tin trays 6 feet long and 3 feet wide covered by thin strips of badly stained cheesecloth. Flies are everywhere, and the noise and smell are overpowering. The workload for the hollow-eyed doctors and nurses is so heavy that one of them collapsed and died last week from exhaustion. Yet despite the squalor, the hospital functions with surprising effectiveness, and only about 8 percent of its patients have died. Typhoid: The refugees from Pakistan's civil war still face many perils in the Indian camps. "What we fear now is a typhoid epidemic," says Gupta of the Krishnanagar hospital. "There are nearly half a million people living in camps or along the roads around here. Many of them have been drinking contaminated water, and most of them arc weakened by the very strenuous journeys they had to get here. The conditions for typhoid are ideal." Perhaps in recognition of India's continuing predicament, the government of Pakistan is trying to hure the refugees home by offering them a general amnesty and by promising them food, shelter, medical care and transportation to their old homes. According to one estimate last week, several thousand Bengalis have already crossed the border back into Pakistan to accept the offer. But so far, most of the homeless 5 million seem to think that, even with all its problems, India is a better place to live right now.
