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 XII. - The income of the industrial worker

Collection:: Economics Books

THE INCOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER. 205 Unfortunately reliable figures of family earnings are more scarce than those of individuals. A family budget enquiry at Bombay, which covered well over 2,000 families, gave the average monthly income per family at Rs. 52/4/6, but this was made in 1921 when prices and incomes were both higher than in recent years. Family budget enquiries in Ahmedabad and Sholapur, each embracing about 900 families, gave the following re- sults —— Families earning, Below Rs. 20 .. .. Rs. 20 and below Rs, 30 Rs. 30 and below Rs. 40 Rs. 40 and below Rs. 50 R8. 50 and below Rs. 60 Rs. 60 and below Rs. 70 Rs. 70 and below Rs. 80 Rs. 80 and below Re 90 Ahmedabad (1926). Percentaoes. Average num- ber of work. ers in fa. ily. Sholapur (1925), Percentages. Average num. ber of worlk- ers in fg- mily, 23 a 1-0 1.6 9 2.0 14 3.0 2-7 2.9 The budgets in Ahmedabad related mainly to cotton mill work- ers, and in Sholapur the enquiry was entirely restricted to such workers, Blsewhere figures of equal value are not available, and we are able to give only approximate estimates. In Nagpur the results of two separate en- quiries indicate that the average family income is in the neighbourhood of Rs. 30. The standard is almost certainly higher in Berar and lower In other parts of the Central Provinces. In the United Provinces investi- gations made for us in Cawnpore, Lucknow and Gorakhpur each show that the great maj ority of families receive not more than Rs. 30 a month. The level is probably higher in Cawnpore than in other centres, but even here we doubt if, among the rank and file of industrial workers, the average family earnings exceed Rs. 25 per month. Except in the coalfields, the family earnings of workers in organised industry in Bengal and Bihar and Orissa probably exceed Rs. 30 on the average and in the more important centres in the Punjab are distinctly over Rs. 35. Although wages of indivi- duals in this province are comparable with those in Bombay, family earn- ings are almost certainly lower on account of the much smalier em- ployment of women. So far ag unskilled workers are concerned, we believe that, broadly speaking, they cannot, maintain families of average size on their income unless there is more than one wage-earner in the family. With most of the other workers the degree of comfort is dependent on the aumber who bring in money to the home. Marriage at a comparatively young age is almost universal, and the claims of children begin at an early stage in the average worker’s industrial life. It is quite impossible for us to attempt a statement of the composition of the workers’ families, and this is essential for any accurate measurement of the standard of somfort;,

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