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 XI. - Transport services and public works

Collection:: Economics Books

[92 CHAPTER XI, recommend that, in all cases where contractors are employed by the Public Works Department, the contract should contain definite provisions regarding the wages to be paid. We do not think that the method adopted elsewhere of a fair wages clause ” can be applied without mo- difications in India, and in its place we suggest that the actual wages to be paid for different kinds of work should be specified in the contract. If it were necessary to make contracts for the supply of labour over a long term, provision could be made for the revision of the rates of wages from time to time and for corresponding additions to, or reductions from the rates payable to the contractors. We also recommend that con- tracts should stipulate the age below which persons should not be em- ployed and this should in no case be less than 12 years. Mr Cliff, Mr Joshi, Diwan Chaman Lall and Miss Power, however, are of opinion that this work is comparable to that undertaken by children in and about mines, and on docks, and that the minimum age of employment should be 14 years. Health on Public Works. So far as housing and sanitation are concerned, the practice appears to vary. In some cases contractors are required to take measures regarding sanitation and health and housing ; but this is not always the case, even on large works where much labour is brought from a distance ; nor does Government undertake to house contractors’ labour. Further, it does not appear to be the regular practice to consult the medical and public health departments before large engineering works are started, or to secure their co-operation during the progress of the schemes. Too often the determination of the scale of medical and public health activity is left to the public works authorities, and the engineer in charge of the construction is made responsible for the control of health on the work. In some provinces the rules do not appear to require previous consulta- tion with the Department of Public Health. In more than one case an important work has been started without any such reference, and occasion- ally a big work has been carried on for some time without any control being exercised by the medical or public health authorities over the health arrangements. The results, as our evidence shows, have not been satis- factory. We recommend that, where large construction works ate to be carried out either by the Public Works Department itself or through the agency of contractors, and especially where workers are to be employed for any length of time in the same area, the Medical and Public Health Departments should be consulted beforehand. In addition, definite rules should be framed in all such cases regarding the supply of proper housing and sanitary arrangements for all persons employed and pro- viding for the treatment of cases of sickness or accident, including accom- modation for cases of infectious disease. We also recommend that the Medical Department should be entrusted with responsibility for the health of those employed on such works. Direct Employment. Experiments in departmental working on a large scale appear to have been rare, but we have been given particulars of the results

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