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CHAPTER VIII,
worked by part-time agricultural workers between crops and are often
closed during the rains. The Madras mines include a number of open
pits in which quarrying is done by unskilled and often casual workers
drawn from the neighbouring villages. From the labour point of view,
mica mining hardly falls within the category of organised indus-
try as the workers are not wholly or even primarily dependent
on the industry. One large mica firm maintains its own hospital,
and a number of firms contribute towards a Government dispensary
and hospital. The small scale of nearly all the mines makes the provision
of adequate medical facilities difficult. But many of the mines are
situated at considerable distances from the nearest hospital or dispensary,
and an extension of medical facilities, which might be secured by
co-operation between employers, is necessary.
Sait Mines.

Some 1,600 persons are employed in the rock salt mines of the
Punjab. The mines are owned by the Government of India and
worked by the Salt Department. In the most important, the Mayo Mine
at Khewra, salt is extracted from great chambers in thick seams of
almost pure salt, which is cut or blasted from the floor of the chamber,
conveyed to a loading station on the haulage road and there loaded into
tubs. In some cases this involves women carrying salt in baskets for a
considerable distance up and down steep inclines in which rough steps
are cut. The chambers are connected by underground haulage worked by
steam locomotives. The output of salt is limited only by the demand,
which is at present insufficient to keep all the workers employed.
As these men are hereditary miners, entirely dependent on the mine for
their livelihood, and have no alternative occupation available, the result
is a serious degree of under-employment, accentuated by the importation
of ticket-of-leave men for loading work at the railway siding. We were
informed that the miners were not prepared to undertake this work
at the rate offered by the management. We recommend that this
matter be re-examined with the object of offering this work to the mine
workers and members of the resident community. There was no system
of checking the workers who enter the mine or the hours worked. We re-
commend that an effective check be instituted and that, when a proper
register of the workers is available, new workers be prohibited from enter-
ing the mine in excess of the numbers necessary to produce the required
output. Measures for the relief of under-employment would be facilitated
if means were available for effective consultation between the
management and the workers. The present body of four lambar-
dars, nominated by the manager, is in our opinion ineffective for
the representation of the workers and should be replaced by an elected
committee.
Health and Sanitation at Khewra.
During our visit to Khewra, we were struck by the poor health of
the miners and their families. Anzemia is prevalent, and it appears from a
report made by Col. Gill, Director of Public Health in the Puniab. in 1922.