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 III. - The employment of the factory worker

Collection:: Economics Books

2] CHAPTER III-THE EMPLOYMENT OF THE FACTORY WORKER. This chapter deals with a number of questions related to the employment of the worker in perennial factories. Beginning with the relationship of the supply of labour to the demand, we discuss the recruitment of the worker and the control and supervision of his employment in the factory. Next comes his education, with special reference to his advancement and promotion, and in conclusion we refer to unemployment. Supply of Labour. Throughout the greater part of its history, organised industry in India has experienced a shortage of labour. A generation ago, this shortage was apt at times to become critical. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, after the plague epidemics, the difficulties of em- ployers were acute, especially in Bombay ; and in 1905 the complaints of employers in Bengal and the United Provinces led to an official enquiry into the causes of the shortage.. Thereafter the position became easier in the factory industries, but even in these, before the war, few employers were assured of adequate labour at all seasons of the year. Some in- dustries, such as tea-planting, particularly in Assam, are still in constant need of more workers. Others, such as coal-mining, experience a distinct shortage at certain seasons. Perennial factories, on the other hand, have now reached a position in which most of them have sufficient labour at all seasons and there is a surplus of factory labour at several centres. The change has been gradual, and it has proceed- ed at a different pace in different centres. In some areas, the opening years of the war witnessed a change, but the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 exercised everywhere a retarding influence. Speaking generally, it would be true to say that the turning point came during the last five years. Up to that stage, labour tended to have the upper hand in that there was competition for its services ; since then the tendency has been for the workers to compete for jobs. The question of the supply of suitable labour is one of vital importance for the future of industry and of labour, and it is worth while considering whether or not the change is likely to be permanent. Causes of Scarcity. The scarcity of labour in the past can be traced to a number of factors. Of these the most obvious was the growth of Indian industry. To a large extent factories, mines and even railways are the crea- bion of the last generation. They employed conjointly about half a million persons in 1892 and about two and a half million persons in 1929. Every year employers increased their demands, so that recruit- ing had to provide not merely for replacement, but also for an appre- ciable addition. The population, it is true, was increasing, but not at the same rate, and two great epidemics, those of plague in 1896-97 and of influenza in 1918-19, had marked effects on the industrial popula- tion. The factories. moreover. were able to draw only on limted areas.

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