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

34 CHAPTER III, and this was followed by reductions in the staffs. The average daily numbers employed in recent years have been :— 1924 138,070 19256 141,302 1926 152.970 1927 146,432 1928 137,464 1929 135.989 The numbers thrown out of work were, of course, larger than the reduction in these figures would indicate ; for, although workers were transferred from one workshop t6 another on the same system, it is not possible for a workshop in one province to limit its recruitment to men retrenched in other provinces. Prospect for the Future, Thus unemployment is certainly not unknown among Indian factory workers, but in the past it has been.on a comparatively small scale. Itis possible that, with an increase in the supply of labour, unem- ployment may assume greater dimensions ; but, as the factory popula- tion is, to a large extent, made rather than born, i.e., as it is mainly drawn from the villages in response to demand and does not grow up in the cities, the question is mainly one of preventing the number of city workers being swollen by men for whom there is no work. As we have already stated, the regularisation of employment, which we have recommended, should do much to make employment secure for those who are required and to discourage those who are not required from entering the labour market. It has to be borne in mind that, even if there is no expansion of industry, the present numbers cannot be maintained without constant re- cruitment. The fullest insurance against unemployment, however, would be provided by the growth of Indian industry ; and, in the absence of con- vulsions from non-economic and especially political causes, there ig every reason to anticipate such growth. If, on the other hand, industry is checked or in part destroyed by internal commotion, no economic scheme can protect the workers from sharing in the suffering involved, Efficiency and Unemployment. It is important to observe that, until very recently, the main cause of unemployment has not been the contraction of trade. In the railway workshops and in the steel industry, the decrease in numbers was the consequence of an increase in efficiency, v.e., it represented the tendency 60 secure the same work from fewer operatives. This is also true, in part, of the unemployment among Bombay cotton mill workers. We believe that the need for increased efficiency is generally recognised by all who have given serious consideration to Indian industrial conditions. The produc- tion of the average operative is at present low and the loss caused by this inefficiency falls mainly on the operative himself, If the standard of living is to be substantially raised, the operative must produce more, 4.e., fewer men must be employed for a given production than is the case at present. The demand for higher standards wil] continue, and it should be assisted conjointly by employers and labour. At the same time, every endeavour should be made to secure the workers against the

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