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CHAPTER VI.

satisfied that the Act is being consistently evaded and cannot be enforced
by ordinary means. We hope that the necessity for using this drastic
method will rarely arise, but the grant of these powers is advisable
in view of the unwillingness of employers in cotton-ginning factories in
some areas to abide by the law.

Dust in Cotton Ginneries.

So far as health in seasonal factories is concerned, the main
danger is from dust, the extraction of which presents special difficulties.
The industries chiefly concerned are the three largest, namely, cotton
ginning, tea manufacture and rice milling. The main stumbling block in
cotton ginning is the reputed lack of any dust-extracting plant which is
at once effective and not unreasonably expensive. An investigation
made in a cotton-growing province showed that the cost of the instal-
lation of adequate exhaust machinery would be approximately Rs. 100 to
Rs. 150 per roller gin, of which there may be any number from 10 to 200
in a ginnery. Governments, therefore, have tended to refrain from making
use of section 10 of the Factories Act empowering an inspector to order
the installation of dust-extracting machinery lest the industry should be
driven into Indian States where such requirements are not-exacted. Re-
liance has been placed instead on effecting gradual improvements in
ventilation. We were informed by a Chief Inspector of Factories that the
extraction fans attached to cotton openers were not more than 50 per cent
efficient, and we could ourselves observe that, even when the worker covers
the mouth with the end of the pagri ora wad of cotton, the amount of
Just in the atmosphere is sufficient to cause discomfort after a short period.
Efforts made in one province to meet this difficulty by the use of masks
or respirators proved abortive, the workers declining, for caste reasons, to
ase these where they have previously been used by others. The high
labour turnover in ginneries is sald to have made it impossible to
reserve masks for individual use. This difficulty is not insuperable, but
perhaps it would not be easy to induce the workers to wear respirators.
We note that it is the practice in most cotton-growing provinces to
make use of the compulsory submission of building plans, required
ander the Cotton Ginning and Pressing Factories Act of 1925, as a means
to bring home to employers the need for effective ventilation in new
ginneries, and often to get such plans amended so as to ensure adequate
ventilation from the start. We recommend that, before the plans
submitted under section 9 (1) of that Act are approved, the prescribed
authority should be satisfied that adequate ventilation will be secured.
We would point out that the installation of dust-extracting machinery
is a less expensive proposition than subsequent structural alteration.
We also recommend a more liberal use of section 10 of the Factories
Act in respect of existing factories in bad cases where improvement
cannot be effected by increased window or roof ventilation.

Dust in Tea Factories and Rice Mills.
We were able to visit a number of tea factories in different
parts of India. During the busy season the atmosphere in parts of some