116

OHAPTER VIII.

Raniganj than in the Jharia field. Other aboriginal workers live at
varying distances from the coalfields. Some inhabit villages in the neighbourhood
 and walk into the coalfields to live and work there for varying
periods. Thus some return to their villages at least once a week, whilst
others return for comparatively long periods when agricultural work
is plentiful. Wherever their permanent home may lie, nearly all the
aboriginal workers are also agriculturalists and spend a considerable part
of their working hours in every year in agriculture. The nonaboriginal
 workers form an increasing minority of the labour force.
They are drawn mainly from Bihar, the north-east of the Central Provinces
and the east of the United Provinces and are known as C, P* miners,
Possessed of greater adaptability than the aboriginals, they are accustomed
 to the use of explosives, can be employed on coal-cutting machines,
and are more assiduous and regular workers. The introduction of more
modern methods of mining and the tendency to more systematisation
of working hours give this type of worker an increasing advantage
over aboriginal labour. While nearly all these men look to other parts
of India as their “home ” and have some connection with agricultural
land there, they are not usually agriculturalists in the same sense as the
aboriginals. They approximate more nearly to perennial factory workers
and may properly be regarded as miners dependent on mining for their
livelihood.

Recruitment of Labour.

We have observed that, for the most part, perennial factories
have now passed the stage at which it is necessary to go beyond the factory
gate to secure labour. Conditions in the coalfields, however, are very
different. Although, in respect of the demand for labour, the position
has become easier in recent years, many of the workers have still
to be engaged away from the colliery. In consequence colliery proprietors
still find it necessary to spend, directly or indirectly, substantial sums
in recruiting. Most collieries recruit through a contractor. Some make
a special contract for the supply of labour, which is then employed and
paid by the mine management ; but the more usual method is to employ
a Talsing contractor to whom are assigned other important functions
which we discuss later. Two other systems exist : under one, a miner
sardar brings a gang to the mine and is responsible to the manager for the
work undertaken by the gang ; under the other, the management sends
out its own recruiters. Whichever the system adopted, the actual procedure
of securing recruits is much the same. The recruiter or his agent visits
the village—which is generally the one with which he has a steady
connection—makes advances, pays railway fares and brings the workers
to the coalfield. An increasing number of miners find their way to the
coalfields from outside without the assistance of g recruiter. This class
includes some of those who come from farthest away, e.g., from the United
Provinces. These workers frequently return year after year to the same
mine.

—————— i — —_ . rei mittee ———
* The letters are not an abbreviation of “ Central Provinces” in this case, but
denote Compressed Pellets »* a commonly used form of gunpowder.