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(b) To convene at an appropriate time a meeting of social security experts from the Asian countries to consider the progress achieved and the special problems encountered, and to indicate the measures which might be taken for the solution of such problems ; (c) To arrange with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations for effective international consideration of the problem of crop and cattle insurance in Asian countries ; (d) To communicate to the World Health Organization for its information this resolution and the report of the Sub-committee on Medical Care ; (e) To instruct the Office to make available experts on problems of social security to advise any of the Asian countries that may request them ; (/) To instruct the Office to submit to the next Asian Regional Conference a survey of the action taken on the basis of this resolution. Extract from the Report of the Sub-committee on Medical Care of the Committee on Social Security Recommendations of the Sub-committee 1. In any scheme for medical care, in any Asian country, the need for the prevention of disease and the improvement of the general standard of health must be considered as of the utmost importance. Much of the existing ill health is due to poor nutrition and to diseases like malaria, which can be prevented. Any proposals which neglect these factors, and devote an undue share of money, energy, and skill to dealing with the treatment of illness alone, are attempting to deal with the problem from the wrong end. Improvements in the environment of the worker —by sanitation, water-supplies, and, where necessary and practicable, anti-malarial work—are of paramount importance, whether the worker is in a large city or in a remote village. 2. The recent report of the Health Survey and Development Committee, under the chairmanship of Sir Joseph Bhore, K.C.5.1., K.C.1.E., C.8.E., gives a comprehensive account of the medical problems of India, In the foreword to the summary of that report there is a statement of principles which can well be taken as a guide for medical work on all Asian countries. It reads as follows : 1. No individual should fail to secure adequate medical care because of inability to pay for it. 2. In view of the complexity of modern medical practice the health services should provide, when fully developed, all the consultant, laboratory, and institutional facilities necessary for proper diagnosis and treatment. 3. The health programme must, from the beginning, lay special emphasis on preventive work. The creation and maintenance of as healthy an environment as possible in the homes of the people, as well as in all places where they congregate for work, amusement, or recreation, are essential. So long as environmental hygiene is neglected, so long as the faulty modes of life of the individual and of the community remain uncorrected, so long as these and other factors weakening man's power of resistance and increasing his susceptibility to disease are allowed to operate unchecked, so long will our towns and villages continue to be factories for the supply of cases to our hospitals and dispensaries. 4. The need is urgent for providing as much medical relief and preventive health care as possible to the vast rural population of the coimtry. The debt which India owes to the tiller of the soil is immense, and, although he pays the heaviest toll when famine and pestilence sweep through the land, the medical attention he receives is of the most meagre description. The time has therefore come to redress the neglect which has hitherto been the lot of the rural areas. 5. The health services should be placed as close to the people as possible in order to ensure the maximum benefit to the communities to be served. The unit of health administration should therefore be made as small as is compatible with practical considerations. 6. It is essential to secure the active co-operation of the people in the development of the health programme. The idea must be inculcated that, ultimately, the health of the individual is his own responsibility, and, in attempting to do so, the most effective means would seem to be to stimulate his health consciousness by providing health education on the widest possible basis as well as opportunities for his active participation in the local health programme.

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