Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XII. - The income of the industrial worker

Collection:: Economics Books

194 CHAPTER XII.—THE INCOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER. We have now completed our endeavour to survey working con- ditions in the different branches of industrial activity. This and the three following chapters deal with matters affecting the standard of life of the industrial worker. The present chapter is concerned mainly with his income. After discussing the adequacy of the material available, an at- tempt is made to give an indication of the wage levels in different indus- tries and centres. Some observations are added on individual and family earnings and on the expenditure of the family. We then pass to the dis- cussion of methods of raising the standard of living, which is shown to involve the raising of the standards of efficiency, of earnings and of health and welfare. Numerous methods of increasing efficiency have been dis- cussed in previous chapters, and health and housing are treated in subse- quent chapters. The latter part of this chapter is consequently devoted mainly to the discussion of possible methods first of enhancing earnings; and secondly of making them more effective. Here, we deal under the first head with the direct raising of wages by employers and then with the fixing of minimum wages, adding some observations on the standardisa- tion of wages in the leading industries. The prevalence of deductions from wages and their regulation are also reviewed. Under the second head, we deal with the reduction of expenditure on drink, leaving the important question of reducing the burden of indebtedness for the following chapter. Statistical Material. In our terms of reference we are directed to report on the ‘standard of living of the workers’. No part of our task has given us greater difficulty, and we must frankly state our inability to give this subject the treatment it deserves. It would, of course, be impos- sible for any Commission which conformed to reasonable limits of time and expenditure to attempt an original analysis of the standard of living of several millions of workers scattered over a sub-continent, dis- tributed over many industries, with a great variety of oceupations, and separated into many groups by climate, race, civil condition, religion, tradition, income and other factors. At the best we could hope to give only a summary of the general position, based on the scientific observa- tion of others, and rendered somewhat more vivid by our own observa- tions and the experience of those witnesses who appeared before us. But when we addressed ourselves to this less ambitious task, we found that, even for this, the essential material was wanting. The only investiga- tions so far made with any claim to statistical adequacy are those conducted by the Bombay Labour Office in the principal centres of that Presi- dency and one enquiry into the standard and cost of living of the working classes in Rangoon. The Bombay enquiries consist of three investiga- bions into wages in the cotton mill industry in that Presidency and inves- tigations Into working class budgets in Bombay. Ahmedabad and

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