RECRUITMENT FOR ASSAM, 371.
approved by the local Government or by such authority as it may appoint.
The aim should be to require the industry itself to take adequate mea-
sures for the prevention of abuses. This responsibility can be best dis-
charged by proper organisation for the provision and maintenance of
satisfactory depts in the recruiting areas and on the journey. Hitherto
the arrangements for registration and transit have been largely in the
hands of one organisation which claims 93%, of the present recruitment
for Assam. A number of gardens, mostly Indian-owned, are not members
of this organisation nor have they been organised for recruiting purposes.
The dangers of unorganised recruiting are obvious and it is essential
that collective arrangements should be made, if the industry is to dis-
charge its responsibility. If it is not found possible for this to be done
through one organisation, we see no objection to suitable groups of
planters forming themselves into organisations for this purpose. Each
group able to satisfy Government that it could collectively fulfil the obli-
gations of the law should be entitled to set up its own depéts and to
place local agents in charge of them. The agent should be required to
maintain registers of recruits in the prescribed form. The rules in force
should also make provision for the detention of women and minors for a
limited period, and the law should prohibit the forwarding of minors who
are unaccompanied by a parent or guardian. The dept and its registers
should be open to the inspection of any officers appointed by the pro-
vincial Government for this purpose. From the stage when the emigrant
is moved from the depdt, the rules should be made by the Government
of India, who should make provision for the following of certain pre-
scribed routes to Assam and for the maintenance, at necessary inter-
vals, of depots where the emigrants can rest, be fed and, if necessary,
be examined.
Possibility of Removing Control.

So long as organised recruiting is required, it will be necessary
for the industry to maintain their forwarding agencies, but the aim should
be to reach a stage where all restrictions on forwarding can be removed,
thus giving the Assam tea industry the complete liberty which is enjoyed
by all other industries in India. Further, while we are satisfied that this
stage has not been reached everywhere, we think that in respect of some
recruiting areas it may be possible to remove all restrictions at once.
Areas mainly inhabited by aboriginals do not stand on the same footing
as other recruiting areas. The most serious abuses in the past occurred in
connection with the recruiting of aboriginals, and it is there that control
is likely to be required longest. As regards other areas, it is significant that
from North Bihar and the United Provinces large numbers of persons are
recruited every year by contractors, without control, for work in other pro-
vinces and in Assam itself, where they are engaged mainly on earth-work,
and we had no evidence to suggest that any control was required in con-
Dection with such recruitment. Further, certain proposals which we
make later in connection with repatriation and the liberty of the labourer
should, if adopted, effect a transformation in the position with regard to
recruitment. As soon as the fresh recruit going to Assam is assured of the

Ing