Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1850495947

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-233603

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: His Majesty's Stationery Off.

Year of publication:: 1931

Scope:: xviii, 580 S.; graph. Darst., Kt.

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter VII. - Unregulated factories

Collection:: Economics Books

CHAPTER VIL—UNREGULATED FACTORIES. Extension of Factory Legislation. We now come to the question of the desirability of extending the existing Factories Act to classes of workers hitherto uncovered by any of its regulations. The history of factory law in India has throughout been one of steady advance, each successive Act coveringa wider field than the last and bringing within its orbit classes of workers or establish- ments which the increasing spread of industrialism has shown to be in need of protection or regulation. As in England, it was the case of the children which first attracted attention, with the result that the initial Act sought to regulate the conditions of work of children in the bulk of factories employing 100 or more workers. This 1881 Act excluded children under 7 years, while the child of from 7 to 12 years became a “ half-timer ”, who could be worked for a maximum of 9 hours. The second Act of 1891 raised the minimum working age of the half-timer from 7 to 9 years, and the age at which he became an adult from 12 to 4 years, reduced his working hours from 9 to 7 and prohibited his employment on dangerous work. The importance of this Act, however, lay not so much in the granting of increased protection to the child worker as in its extension also to women workers, who were given a maximum day of 11 hours. In addition the Act brought under control all places employing 50, instead of the previous 100, employees provided they used power machinery. Moreover for the first time local Gov- ernments were given power to include all factories using power and em- ploying 20 persons or more within the scope of the new Act. The Act of 1911, which repealed both the earlier Acts, took the extremely important third step of regulating the hours of men in textile factories as well as those of women and children. The hours of children employed in such factories were reduced from 7to 6. At the same time new provisions in respect of health and safety were introduced, but on bhis occasion the definition of a factory remained unchanged. The year 1922 saw the passage of an amending Act fixing an 11 hour day and 50 hour week for adults. The importance of this Act in showing the gradual extension of the principle of control lay in the reduction of the number of workers necessary to constitute a factory from 50 to 20 and in extending to local Governments power to include places employing as few as ten persons in the case of those without any installation of power machinery as well as those using such machinery. It also took another step in protecting the child worker by excluding altogether those under 12 years, raising the age at which the industrial child became an adult to 15 years, and restricting the hours of the half-timer in all factories to 6 daily. The subsequent amending Acts of 1923 and 1926 did not make any change of importance in the scope of the Act aither as regards establishments or classes of workers. Gradualness the Keynote in the Past. This brief outline of the history of certain features of factory legislation in India shows that from the beginning the principle of factory A,

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