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CHAPTER 1V. 
factories, coupled with the long hours, vitiate energy and prevent in- 
creased efficiency and production. They hold the view that the essential 
requirements of a worker, working under Indian conditions, is first 
a shorter working day and second, the provision of suitable rest periods 
during the working day. In their opinion the institution of an 8 hour 
day in factories under present conditions is not only desirable but both 
practicable and necessary. They believe that, within a reasonable period 
of time, it would result inincreased efficiency on the part of the worker, 
improved organisation on the part of the employer, and as a result would 
be a sound economic proposition. They suggest that two hours should 
be allotted for the provision of suitable rest periods. The settlement of 
the length of the rest time and its allotment should be determined by 
local factors. They therefore recommend that in factories the existing 
weekly and daily limits be reduced to 48 and 8 respectively and that pro- 
vision be made for adequate rest periods. 
Distribution of Hours. 
We turn now to the consideration of the distribution of hours 
throughout the day. The present requirements of the law ordinarily 
involve the grant of an interval of an hour. For this two half-hours 
may be substituted at the request of the operatives, and where in factories 
the working day is not more than 8% hours, and the operatives so desire 
the local Government can permit men, but not women, to have only one 
half-hour’s interval. Not more than 6 hours’ work can be done con- 
tinuously if an hour’s interval is given and not more than 5 hours’ 
work in other cases. The only remaining restriction on the distribution 
of the hours of work for adults is designed to prevent the night work of 
women, and precludes their employment between 7 p.M. and 5-30 a.m. ; 
these times can be varied somewhat by the local Government so long as 
the gap of 104 hours between the two is retained. 
Suitable Intervals. 
The principle of an interval is of long standing, and, so far as 
women are concerned, the Act of 1891 (which introduced the prohibition 
of night-work) prescribed a longer period than is now obligatory. The 
subsidiary provisions date from 1922 and 1926, and the idea of mak- 
ing intervals vary with the consent of the operatives was introduced 
by the legislature in 1922. Employers and workers have not shown 
much readiness to co-operate in experiments with shorter intervals, 
and a single interval of an hour or longer is the most common practice. 
Experience in other countries shows that fatigue can be diminished 
by frequent short intervals, and although the Indian operative is apt 
zenerally to be “slow off the mark ”’, more endeavours should be made to 
discover the best form of intervals. The long continuous spells of work 
have probably some responsibility for the frequency of unauthorised inter- 
vals and, if hours are to be’ reduced, it is the more important that these 
should be lessened. We recommend that the statutory intervals should 
ordinarily amount to not less than an hour in the aggregate, and that, sub- 
ject to the sanction of the Chief Inspector of Factories. employers should