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 VIII. - Mines

Collection:: Economics Books

114 CHAPTER VIII, more than doubled. Conditions during the war and in the years immediately following it encouraged the opening of a large number of small mines, working for the most part inferior coal, and production reached a peak at 21% million tons in 1919. This was not passed till 1929, when a new record was made. The recent expansion has taken place during a period of depression, which has resulted in the closing down of the weaker mines, while the stronger mines, with improved methods of working, have increased their output. The total output has thus increased, while the total number of mines and workers has decreased, the decrease in the latter being confined to surface workers. All the figures given refer to the average daily numbers employed, and it is unfortunately impossible to give accurate figures of the actual number of individuals who work in the coal mines in any year. Owing to the fact that few miners work regularly throughout the year, the aggregate number of workers far exceeds the average number of workers given in the statistics. Working Conditions. The Indian miner is in some respects more fortunate than the miner in Europe. Most of the coal comes from thick seams of 10 feet and over, seams of less than 5 feet being rarely worked. In consequence, the main underground roads are generally spacious and the working places almost invariably allow the miner to stand upright at his work. As yet the mines have not reached any great depth, those of over 500 feet in depth being exceptional, and the lead to the working face is seldom anduly long. ‘As the mines develop work is carried to greater depths and greater distances, and, as a result, some working places are hot and ill-ventilated. 18,000 workers are employed in quarries, two-thirds of them in the Bokaro field. In this field 95%, of the output is mined by the railways, whose workings include an immense excavation where a seam 100 feet thick is worked from the surface, after re- moving some 60 feet of overburden. This quarry produces nearly a million tons a year, the largest output of any colliery in India. Inflammable gas is not common, and most of the mines can be safely worked with naked lights, while a number of the larger ones are lit by electricity. In most of the coalfields there is an almost complete lack of system in respect of mining leases. Patches of coal, which, by reason of their small size, cannot be worked separately except by the most primitive equipment, can be found in close proximity to large mines equipped with electric power and using machinery of the most modern kind both above and below ground. We recommend an examination of the Mining Industry Act 1926, enacted in the United Kingdom, for the purpose of considering how far its provisions would be to the advantage of the in- dustry in India in this connection Ventilation. The health conditions underground vary from mine to mine to a considerable extent, especially in regard to ventilation and sanitation. In many, probably most. cases the ventilation

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