HOURS. IN FACTORIES. 51 
goes beyond the needs of the case, and we are anxious that employers 
who wish to work on shift systems should be subject to as few restrictions 
as possible. We recommend, therefore, that in future the local Govern- 
ment should have the power to control overlapping shifts. By these 
we mean shifts which involve the simultaneous employment on work 
of the same kind of more than one shift of persons ; such shifts have already 
been made illegal in mines by the Indian Mines Act. So far as the jute 
industry is concerned, we understand that it is itself effecting a reform ; 
there has been a steady tendency to convert multiple-shift mills to the 
single-shift system, and it is possible that multiple-shift mills, which are 
ow in the minority, will disappear without official action in a short time. 
Sir Alexander Murray agrees with our recommendation that 
Government should have the power to contro] overlapping shifts but he 
regrets that his experience does not allow him to accept our picture of 
the working of the System or of its effects, 
Hours for Women. 
We received a number of opinions in favour of fixing the 
maximum for women’s hours at lower levels than those prescribed for 
men. The main arguments wm favour of this course are that women 
have domestic duties to perform, and that they find the long hours a 
greater strain. In practice, too, their hours are shorter in a number of 
factories. On the other hand, to restrict women by law to shorter 
hours than men would undoubtedly lead to the substitution of men 
for women, in many factories, and we believe that it, is desirable to increase 
rather than to diminish the openings for the employment of women. 
The sex disparity in many big cities, which is already a menace to the 
life of the industrial worker, would be further accentuated by an increase 
in the proportion of men employed, while it would be diminished if 
women were more generally employed. Moreover, if hours are limited 
a8 we recommend, there will be less danger of their exceeding the capacity 
of Indian women, 
Work of Half-timers. 
Children under 12 may not be employed in factories. The Act of 
1922 provides that persons between the ages of 12 and 15 years, subject to 
their being certified ag physically fit, may be employed for not more than 
6 hours a day. The ages for half timers were 9 to 14 years before that 
date, and the maximum hours were 6 in textile factories and 7 in others. 
Children working for the full day of 6 hours must have a rest period of 
half an hour, so arranged as to prevent more than 4 hours continuous 
work, but if the day is restricted to 5% hours’ work, no interval is neces- 
sary. Some difficulty has arisen from the practice of employing children 
under different names and with different certificates in two factories on 
the same day. Ttis almost impossible to prove that a manager is knowingly 
employing children whe are also employed elsewhere, and in 1926 the 
legislature added to the Factories Act a section making it possible to 
prosecute the parent or guardian of the child who is employed in two 
mills, Special vigilance and, the use of this section have combined to 
eliminate or greatly to reduce the evil in the Ahmedabad cotton mills,