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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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter VIII. - Mines

Collection:: Economics Books

124 Health in Giridih. CHAPTER VIII. As this is one of the oldest established mining areas in India and the bulk of the property belongs to the State, circumstances would geem to make both an opportunity and a claim for model conditions. In actual fact, the physique of the people is poor, the general standard of health appeared to us to be unsatisfactory and water supplies and sanita- tion were defective. The health control is in the hands of a Railway District Medical Officer, whose headquarters lie outside the area. The immediate supervision is carried out by the hospital assistant surgeon, whilst the sanitary inspectors work under the control of the Superintend- ent or the District Engineer. We recommend that a full-time resident medical officer with public health qualifications be appointed forthwith and that a complete re-organisation of the health staff be effected. Only then will it be possible to carry out the many improvements calling for attention, Educational Facilities. Another activity of the Boards of Health and Welfare should be co-operation with the Government in improving and extend- ing educational facilities. During our tour we visited a number of schools and heard a considerable amount of evidence as to the available educational facilities for the children of miners. In the Asansol area we came across 8 school run by the miners themselves, and evidence was also given of another such school in the Dhanbad area. We were throughout struck by the fact that success depended very largely on the attitude of the company managers, and that, in some cases, colliery schools were attended only by the children of clerks and higher grade workers, especially where managers did not directly encourage the attendance of the children of actual workers. In the Giridih colliery area no less than 17 schools are being run, and the extent of education among the children was markedly in advance of other mining areas. The Superintendent of the East Indian Railway Colliery Department stated that the management had exercised a form of compulsion in the matter of education for more than a generation, but that the miners now willingly send their children to school. In the Jharia area, where many different companies are involved, no such scheme operates and, indeed, the number of schools, both Government and colliery, has fallen since 1927 from 99 to 88. In his most recent report, the Chief Inspector of Mines emphasises the absence of any concerted movement in this area to bring the children of the workers under the provisions of the Bihar and Orissa Primary Education Act of 1919, although children under 13 years have been excluded from the mines since 1924. In view of this fact and as alternative employment for even the older children is scarce, we would press for the introduction of compulsory primary educa- bion in the coalfields. We have suggested elsewhere that Government should adopt the British practice of giving percentage grants towards expenditure on health. and welfare measures. and this method

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