376

CHAPTER XX.
where health and welfare receive adequate attention and where sufficient
land is available for private cultivation. On some of these the labour
force has settled contentedly, and no recruiting has been necessary for
many years. At the other extreme are gardens where conditions are
such that all attempts at recruitment have failed to secure anything
approaching a contented or adequate labour force. We deal later with
conditions obtaining on gardens which have an important effect on
recruiting, but wish to refer here to two definite deterrents to recruitment
that call for a speedy remedy, namely, the lack of liberty for the worker
and the difficulty of returning to his home.
Contracts and the Worker.

Recruitment for Assam has suffered grave injury in the past
owing to the system of penal contract and of private arrest, to which we
have already referred. The planters have shown a lack of confidence in
their ability to retain labour, and there has been a constant tendency
to rely on restraints of various kinds to keep the labourer on the garden.
Even to-day, where successive amendments of the law have removed all
the statutory restraints, there is ample evidence to show that the old faith
in restraint in some form persists. The planter, to his own prejudice,
has deliberately allowed the old ideas of the penal contract to linger in
the minds of his workers. The bonus (commonly Rs. 12 for a man and
Rs. 8 for a woman), which was given to a labourer when he entered on a
“labour-contract ”, continues to be paid and is to this day referred to as
the “ girmit” or agreement money. It was stated that the disconti-

nuance of the bonus would give rise to discontent as the workers had
secome accustomed to this lump sum payment ; but this does not explain
why it is still regarded as an inducement for future service. On many
gardens the thumb-impression is taken when the bonus is paid,
although this is not done when the worker receives his wages. The
explanation given by one witness was that for purposes of audit a receipt
was necessary in the case of the bonus, but no such receipts were required
in the case of wages. The thumb-impression is usually taken on a register
or on a piece of paper, but some planters have devised a form which bears
a marked resemblance to the form used in the days of the penal contract,
and we came across an instance where the thumb-impression was still
being taken on the old form. In theory, the object of the thumb-impres-
sion is to bind the labourer by a civil agreement, but as he is not likely
to appreciate the difference between this and a penal contract, the prac-
tical result is that he believes himself still bound by a penal contract.
In a number of instances the bonus is not in fact claimed, which shows
that it continues to be regarded as a gift fatal to the liberty of its
recipient. So far as we could ascertain, few steps had been taken to ac-
quaint the labourers with the vital change made in the law ; and some
officials appeared to be apprehensive of the consequences of any sudden
access of knowledge of this kind. .
Restraints on Workers’ Movements.
In other directions, too, there is evidence that the Iabourer’s
liberty is incomplete. The workers, for the most part, live in lines to