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 VIII. - Mines

Collection:: Economics Books

117 Mining and Agriculture. We have referred to the fact that the great majority of miners are also agriculturalists. Some come from villages near enough to allow them to work in the fields as occasion arises ; others, when they come to the mines, leave members of their families in charge, returning only when bheir supervision and labour are most necessary. Yet others, who may have no land of their own, find work in agriculture at harvest time, when there is naturally a substantial rise in agricultural wages and work of this kind becomes temporarily more profitable than mining. In conse- quence, there is a marked variation in the supply of labour throughout the year. The number of workers in the minesis at its height about the end of February. Thereafter there is a steady diminution as the winter crops mature. The exodus is checked in April, when there is little agricultural work available, but begins with renewed strength about the middle of May, and employment is at its lowest point about the middle of July, when the sowing or transplanting of monsoon crops is at its height. Thereafter large numbers return to the mines and another peak is reached by about the end of September, From this stage there is again a decline and by the middle of November, when the rice harvest is at its height, the labour force reaches almost as low an ebb as in the middle of J uly. Thereafter it rises rapidly through- out the winter to the peak about the end of February. These movements of labour can be measured with fair accuracy by reference to the monthly raisings of coal for British India. In a normal year the amount raised in February or March is about 50 per cent above that raised in J uly, while the September raisings may exceed the July figures by about 30 per cent. These differences naturally vary with the vagaries of the mon- soon. Defective rainfall, besides making labour rather more plentiful throughout, the vear. diminishes the extent of the exodus to the fields. Irregularity of Working. Apart from seasonal absences, there are other irregularities in the miners’ working time which have their effect both upon their earnings and upon the industry. In earlier days it was the miner's custom to come with his family from the village and to go underground for a period which might extend to one, two or more days, returning to the surface and to the village when he had earned as much as he desired at the moment. This manner of working has largely disappeared, though 1b survived in some degree up to the introduction of the daily limit of hours in 1929. But even abandoned customs leave their mark, and it is probable that the present lack of discipline in regard to working times Is due, in part at least, to the tradition of the past. Whatever the cause, few miners work six days a week and few mines have hitherto been able bo count on the punctual attendance of their workers, even on those days when they present themselves for work. The mines do not work on Sunday. On Monday very few miners put in an appearance, many are still absent on Tuesday and it is not till Wednesday that a good attend- ance 1s secured. Reasonable estimates indicate an average of 4 to 41 days’ work per week for the individual miner during the weeks he is at

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