Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Bibliographic data

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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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter VII. - Unregulated factories

Collection:: Economics Books

16 CHAPTER VII, day, and debilitation is often experienced after 3 or 4 months of regular work ”. In both provinces the workers are unorganised, but some of the employers are persons of education and,in at least one province, are well organised. We understand that suggestions made by the local Government for improving the sanitary and general conditions of the factories in a particular area have so far met with no response. “Bidi ’ Making, The making of the bids (the indigenous cigarette) is an industry widely spread over the country. - It is partly carried on in the home, but mainly in workshops in the bigger cities and towns. Every type of building is used, but small workshops preponderate and it is here that the graver problems mainly arise. Many of these places are small airless boxes, often without any windows, where the workers are crowded so thickly on the ground that there is barely room to squeeze between them. Others are dark semi-basements with damp mud floors unsuitable for manufacturing processes, particularly in an industry where workers sit or squat on the floor throughout the work- ing day. Sanitary conveniences and adequate arrangements for re- moval of refuse are generally absent. Payment is almost universally made by piece-rates, the hours are frequently unregulated by the employer and many smaller workshops are open day and night. Regular inter- vals for meals and weekly holidays are generally non-existent. In the case of adults these matters are automatically regulated by indivi- dual circumstances, the worker coming and going as he pleases and often, indeed, working in more than one place in the course of the week. Nevertheless in the case of full-time workers, ¢.e., those not using bids making as a supplementary source of income, the hours are too frequent- ly unduly long, the length of the working day being determined by the worker’s own poverty and the comparatively low yield of the piece- rates paid. ‘ Child Labour in “ Bidi ”’ Factories. The paramount matter for concern, however, in a number of areas, particularly in the Madras Presidency, is the question of child (i.e., boy) labour. In many cities large numbers of young boys are employed for long hours and discipline is strict. Indeed there is reason to believe that corporal punishments and other disciplinary measures of a reprehensible kind are sometimes resorted to in the case of the smaller children. Workers as young as five years of age may be found in some of these places working without adequate meal intervals or weekly rest days, and often for 10 or 12 hours daily, for sums as low as 2 annas in the case of those of tenderest years. This recalls some of the worst features of child apprenticeship in Engiand at the time of the agitation prior to the passing of the first Factory Act, particularly when it is realised that many of the parents of these child workers are in debt to the employer. As a result they are not in a position to enquire too closely into the treatment meted out to their children or to do other than return an absconding child. Although it is impossible to give sven an approximate ficure of the numbers of such child workers in the

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