CHAPTER VIL—UNREGULATED FACTORIES. 
Extension of Factory Legislation. 
We now come to the question of the desirability of extending the 
existing Factories Act to classes of workers hitherto uncovered by any 
of its regulations. The history of factory law in India has throughout 
been one of steady advance, each successive Act coveringa wider field 
than the last and bringing within its orbit classes of workers or establish- 
ments which the increasing spread of industrialism has shown to be in need 
of protection or regulation. As in England, it was the case of the 
children which first attracted attention, with the result that the initial 
Act sought to regulate the conditions of work of children in the bulk of 
factories employing 100 or more workers. This 1881 Act excluded 
children under 7 years, while the child of from 7 to 12 years became a 
“ half-timer ”, who could be worked for a maximum of 9 hours. The 
second Act of 1891 raised the minimum working age of the half-timer 
from 7 to 9 years, and the age at which he became an adult from 12 to 
4 years, reduced his working hours from 9 to 7 and prohibited his 
employment on dangerous work. The importance of this Act, however, 
lay not so much in the granting of increased protection to the child 
worker as in its extension also to women workers, who were given a 
maximum day of 11 hours. In addition the Act brought under control 
all places employing 50, instead of the previous 100, employees provided 
they used power machinery. Moreover for the first time local Gov- 
ernments were given power to include all factories using power and em- 
ploying 20 persons or more within the scope of the new Act. The 
Act of 1911, which repealed both the earlier Acts, took the extremely 
important third step of regulating the hours of men in textile factories 
as well as those of women and children. The hours of children 
employed in such factories were reduced from 7to 6. At the same time 
new provisions in respect of health and safety were introduced, but on 
bhis occasion the definition of a factory remained unchanged. The year 
1922 saw the passage of an amending Act fixing an 11 hour day and 
50 hour week for adults. The importance of this Act in showing the 
gradual extension of the principle of control lay in the reduction of the 
number of workers necessary to constitute a factory from 50 to 20 and 
in extending to local Governments power to include places employing 
as few as ten persons in the case of those without any installation of 
power machinery as well as those using such machinery. It also took 
another step in protecting the child worker by excluding altogether 
those under 12 years, raising the age at which the industrial child 
became an adult to 15 years, and restricting the hours of the half-timer 
in all factories to 6 daily. The subsequent amending Acts of 1923 and 
1926 did not make any change of importance in the scope of the Act 
aither as regards establishments or classes of workers. 
Gradualness the Keynote in the Past. 
This brief outline of the history of certain features of factory 
legislation in India shows that from the beginning the principle of factory 
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