CHAPTER IVs 
(8 
period within which factories may employ women, and to reduce from 
131 to 13 hours the period within which they may employ any individual 
woman. In this connection we have considered the objections, which are 
felt strongly by many in India, to women working in or travelling to and 
from the factory after dark. We believe that many women will be unwilling 
to accept work involving late hours or a very early start, and we do not 
anticipate that this relaxation will have any effect on the hours in fac- 
tories which work without shifts. At the same time, we regard it as 
desirable to remove an obstacle in the way of the more general adoption 
of shifts and the employment of women who may be willing to work on 
these shifts. We may add that, if adopted, our proposals will bring the 
Indian law into strict conformity with the Convention relating to night 
work for women, to which we have referred. In the case of children, we 
recommend that the spreadover be limited to 73 hours, and consider 
that the night rest should continue to include the hours between 7 P.M. 
and B-30 A.M. 
Multiple Shifts in Jute NMills. 
Another question, to which great attention has been directed 
in Bengal in connection with the jute mills, is the control of shifts. Prior 
to 1922, textile factories could not work for more than 12 hours in all 
except under a system of shifts approved by an inspector. In 1922 all 
restrictions on the running hours of machinery were abolished, and with 
these went all power to prevent the working of shifts. The Government 
of Bengal now desire power to control the working of shifts with a view 
to the prevention or modification of a system which has been extensively 
used in jute mills. The practices to which the Government of Bengal 
and others have directed our attention require explanation. The Bengal 
jute mills are divided into “ single-shift ’ and * double-shift ” mills. ~All 
the mills open at 5-30 A.M. and close at 7 P.M, and in the former class of 
mills there is an interval of 23 hours during which no work is done. Here 
the only defect is the inadequate night period, with which we have already 
dealt. In the © double-shift ”” mills, the machinery runs for the whole 
131 hours and work is conducted on a system of overlapping multiple 
shifts. This is best understood by reference to the appended diagram, 
which shows the shifts and the hours during which they worked in a typical 
mill. The essence of the system is that the workers in each department 
are divided into a number of groups enjoying intervals at different times, 
so that the machinery runs continuously for 13% hours with constant 
changes in the groups at work. It will be observed that, in the case 
illustrated by the diagram, the intervals are so arranged that at 22 different 
times in the course of the day, some workers are due to come in and relieve 
others who go out. 
Objections to Multiple Shifts. 
There are several objections to such a system from the point of 
view of labour. In the first place, the intervals bear no necessary relation 
ro mes] times and. where different members of a family work in different