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CHAPTER IV.

The present provisions governing children’s certificates should apply
mutatis mutandis to these certificates. Further, we recommend that such
persons should not be employed when women cannot be employed, i.e.,
that they must not be employed during the night hours which are closed
bo women and that in no case should it be possible to exempt them from
the provision relating to spreadover.

Day of Rest.

The Factories Act provides for a weekly rest day. This ordinarily
 falls on Sunday, but employers can substitute for Sunday any
of the three days Preceding or following it, subject to the condition that
Shere must not be more than 10 days’ continuous work. This proviso,
which is designed to enable the more important religious festivals to be
substituted for Sundays, appears to give general satisfaction; andin a
few centres there are more ‘holidays on substituted days than on Sundays.
An attempt was made by the Government of India in 1921 so to amend
the law as to ensure that the holiday would fall on the same day of the
week for long periods ; but the proposal was rejected by the legislature
which, we think, interpreted correctly the views both of employers and
employed. Some difficulty has been caused by the fact that the law
stipulates for a complete calendar day, so that a break of 36 hours or
even 47 hours does not necessarily constitute compliance with it. Where
work is conducted continuously on shifts, none of which ends at midnight,
the day of rest can be given in principle without being secured in practice,
 and exemptions are frequent in favour of such factories, The International
 Labour Convention relating to the weekly rest day, which
India has ratified, requires merely 24 hours’ continuous rest and not a
calendar day’s rest; but it is preferable to meet special cases by
means of exemptions rather than to alter the principle followed by the
Indian law, which is better than that of the Convention.
Grant of Exemptions,
Associated with the provisions of the Factories Act relating to
hours of work are a number of clauses giving local Governments the
power to grant exemptions to individual factories or classes of operatives
or factories. No exemptions are permissible in the case of
children’s hours ; and the daily limit of hours is absolute, so far as
women are concerned. But with these exceptions, all the provisions
relating to hours of work can be relaxed in certain defined circumstances,
In the main the principles governing the grant of exemption are based on
provisions of International Labour Conventions. In the years immediately
 following the passing of the 1922 Act, considerable latitude was shown;
lately exemptions have been substantially curtailed. In this respect,
policy has been guided to some extent by the central Government who, in
exercise of their powers of supervision, have also endeavoured to secure
some uniformity between province and province. There are, however,
differences in the treatment of the same class of factories in different
provinces and in the degree of latitude which local Governments exhibit
in the matter of exemptions generally. The criteria laid down in