RECRUITMENT FOR ASSAM. 
‘361 
recruitment to a single method, represented a step in the opposite direc- 
tion, and they were not calculated to alleviate the scarcity of labour. 
From this point of view, a more progressive move was the endeavour 
to get away from the system of indenture. In 1908, by means of a noti- 
fication, the provisions relating to indentured labour contained in the 
Assam Labour and Emigration Act (Act VI of 1901), which controlled 
and still controls recruitment for Assam, were withdrawn from the Surma 
valley and the two lower districts of the Assam valley, and in 1915 they 
were withdrawn from the rest of the Assam valley. From that date, the 
right of private arrest disappeared, and no penal contracts could be exe- 
cuted under Act VI. Unfortunately there remained on the statute 
book the Workmen's Breach of Contract Act, which dated from 1859 
and was applicable to large parts of India. This Act made possible 
penal contracts of a slightly different type, and to it many planters, es- 
pecially in the Assam valley, now turned. The Act was finally repealed 
in 1923 with effect from 1926, and there is now no Act under which a 
labourer in Assam can be criminally punished for breach of contract. 
Character of Migration. 
Before going on to discuss in detail the present system of re- 
cruitment and the changes we advocate, it is desirable to say something 
regarding the character and effects of migration to Assam, particularly 
as we found evidence in some quarters of a desire to discourage and even 
to prevent such migration. Reference has already been made to two points 
of difference between migration to the plantations and migration to the 
factories, namely, the plantations desire to attract women and children as 
well as men, and the change of work involved is notradical. Both of 
these features are prominently associated with recruitment for Assam. 
The planters there have consistently endeavoured to build up a labour 
force permanently settled in Assam, and this has given an additional 
impulse to the recruitment of families rather than individuals. Many 
labourers receive from the tea gardens small plots of land to cultivate 
their own crops, so that they are not only labourers but also, in a small 
way, agriculturalists on their own account. In this and a number of other 
respects, which we discuss when we deal with conditions on the gardens, 
the life and environment of the labourer have a closer resemblance to 
ordinary village conditions than to the life of the big cities. The recruit 
to an Assam tea garden has in many cases a prospect which is not limited 
to employment on a garden, for there is the possibility of becoming an 
independent cultivator in Assam. There has been a steady movement 
of labour from the tea gardens to the adjoining bastis or villages where 
labourers have been able to acquire Government land for cultivation. 
This movement has been assisted by the Government of Assam which is 
anxious to promote the colonisation ofa sparsely populated province. 
Over 600,000 ex-garden labourers are settled on Government land, and in 
the census report for 1921 it was estimated that the total number of 
“ foreigners ”’ in the province attributable to the tea industry, was 1-1/3 
millions, i.e., 1/6th of the whole population of Assam. We shall have 
occasion later to dwell on the less satisfactory features of tea garden