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 XII. - The income of the industrial worker

Collection:: Economics Books

202 © ~ CHAPTER XII. The figures must be accepted with some reserve as the returns submitted by the mineowners are not subjected to an official check at the source, and their accuracy depends entirely on the proper determination of the aggregate daily attendance during the month for which they are prepared. This is not always an easy matter, as payment is made by the tub and in some cases the worker receives assistance from members of his family and also from others who share in the joint earn- ings. Payment in all coal mines for coal cutters and other underground workers is by the tub. The average rate per tub of coal raised in the leading ecoalfields is about seven annas, but in most cases this in- cludes the payment for the loader who fills the coal into tubs. The average number of tubs raised by a worker in a day is between two and three. The average monthly earnings of the worker cannot, how- ever, be calculated from the average daily earnings as shown in the statement given, for attendance is extremely irregular. At our request the Government of Bihar and Orissa have prepared a series of family budgets from the Jharia field. These and the evidence that we collected suggest that the average monthly earnings of a coal cutter are in the neighbourhood of Rs. 10 to Rs. 15. This has some support in the evidence given regarding the average attendance of the miner. The other mines of importance are the lead and tin mines in Burma, the salt mines in the Punjab, the manganese mines in the Central Provinces and the mica and iron mines in Bihar and Orissa, As will appear from the statement which we have reproduced, the average daily earnings are appreciably higher in Burma than in any other part of India. The original statement contains a foot-note to the effect that in the Punjab salt mines the earnings recorded are below the average level, as the output of salt is severely restricted in the month of December without reducing the labour force. The fact that a system of gang payment is in force makes it difficult to give reliable figures of individual earnings, Further information furnished to us by the Chief Inspector of Mines indicates that, in the numerous stone quarries, the daily wage varies from 5 annas to 8 annas for men and 4 annas to 5 annas for women. Earnings of Dock Lahourers. : Reference has already been made to the casual nature of employ- ment in docks and the payment of wages through foremen, maistries, tindals, or mukkadams. The daily earnings are highest in Rangoon. As a result of the recent strike, the daily rate was raised from Rs. 1-8-0 to Rs. 1-12-0, but this increase was accompanied by a reduction in employ- ment among Indian dock labourers who, till then, were exclusively employed in loading and unloading ships. Most of them now: find it impossible to secure employment for more than half the number of days in the month. We deal elsewhere with this and other features of the employment of Indian labour in Rangoon. In Bombay the daily wages of a dock labourer are said to vary from As. 14 to Rs. 1-8-0, while in Karachi we were informed by a firm of stevedores that the rate was Rs. 1-2-0 for men and As, 13 for women. Have the

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