HOUSING OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER, . 277
tion and, in the present state of the law, compulsion cannot be exercised it
favour of a company or private association desiring to start a housing
scheme. Employers in Cawnpore have found it nearly impossible to obtain
suitable land for their settlements at anything like a reasonably economic
rate. The Improvement Trust Enquiry Committee proposed that build-
ing land should be made available to the mills on a 90 years’ lease, on
payment of a premium equivalent to the acquisition cost plus overhead
charges, and that the loans from Government should be repaid in equated
instalments extending over a period of 30 years. Both land and build-
ings would be mortgaged to Government as security for repayment.
The Upper India Chamber of Commerce, which has long advocated the
necessity for facilitating acquisition of land for industrial dwellings and
for the free provision of water, lighting and sanitation by the Municipality,
assured the Enquiry Committee that, if Government were willing to lend
on these terms, some of the leading mills would build settlements for
their workmen in the near future.
Ahmedabad.
The areas occupied by the working classes in Ahmedabad
present pictures of terrible squalor. Nearly 929, of the houses are one-
roomed ; they are badly built, insanitary, ill-ventilated and overcrowded,
whilst water supplies are altogether inadequate and latrine accommoda-
tion is almost entirely wanting. Resulting evils are physical deteriora~
tion, high infant mortality and a high general death rate. Thirty-five
of the textile mills have provided chawls for about 16%, of their employees,
but in only one or two cases is the accommodation of a reasonable stand-
ard, and sanitary arrangements are frequently inadequate. The quar-
bers built by the Asoka and Calico Mills are perhaps the best. In the
former case, a settlement adjacent to the mill provides accommodation
in the form of chawls for about 1,100 out of 2,500 workers. The chawls,
laid out in groups of eight, are interspersed with gardens and trees. One
type of house has a single room, a verandah and a courtyard, whilst
another and more expensive type consists of two rooms and a verandah,
Some years ago the latter Company built a colony of 48 tenements, in
which each house contains a room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a common
verandah. The lay-out provided open spaces, and gardens and other
amenities were intended, but these houses have remained unpopular
because of their distance from the town. In several cases the mill oper-
atives will not use the accommodation provided for them and the houses
of one mill are regularly occupied by operatives of other mills. The
housing conditions of textile workers in Sholapur are much better than
in Bombay or Ahmedabad and sub-letting does not exist there to any
large extent.
Nagpur.
Conditions in this city are neither better nor worse than those of
Some of the other areas already mentioned, but special reference must
be made to the excellent scheme being carried out by the management of
the Empress Mills to provide their workers with decent homes and with