Political and Economic Roots of Disease-Malaria in Rajasthan

Malaria in Rajasthan Kashyap Mankodi Malaria is an old disease, long identified in literature. Its spread in modern times may be found in political and economic factors. This article examines the history of malaria in India and the policy towards its control in the last hundred years. Against this background it examines the nature and spread of the several epidemics of malaria in Rajasthan. a region which had in the past not experienced such epidemics. The improvement of transport and communication facilities in the region, labour migration from villages in the arid zone, agricultural colonisation consequent upon the opening of the Indira Gandhi Canal and the change in the size and composition of the livestock be among the major causes for the changing disease pattern in the state. Any policy for controlling the disease needs to take cognisance of these factors.