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

THE INCOME OF .THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER. 207 the interest on debts is excluded and in Sholapur it is stated that the in: formation is only approximately correct. In the reports of both en- quiries it is stated that families either did not remember or did not like to disclose what they spent on liquor. There is reported to be less con- sumption of liquor by the workers in Sholapur than by those in Ahmed- abad, although the amount shown in the budgets is greater. Both these examples are taken from the Bombay Presidency, where wages are on the whole higher than in other provinces except Burma. One enquiry re- lated entirely to cotton mill workers and the other mainly to this class, which is better paid than most industrial workers. The statistics, there- fore, refer to groups of workers who are by comparison favourably situat- ed, and to our mind the striking feature of the budgets is the large pro- portion expended on the primary necessities of life. It will be observed that, if the debt charges are excluded, food, fuel and lighting, cloth- ing and house rent account for over 82% of the total expenditure in Sholapur and for 85% in Ahmedabad. In addition to these pri- mary needs there are other necessities to be met. Even the poorest worker must incur some expenditure on washing and nearly all must spend something on the barber. Some household utensils are necessity and, in referring to rent, furniture is not included. As g matter of fact, furniture is at a minimum in the workers’ houses ; even a bed is not always possible. In addition there is the bigger occasional expenditure which sickness entails ; and the events of life, births, marriages and deaths, involve an outlay which is unavoidable, apart from the compul- sion exercised by custom or religion. Finally, most industrial workers have to spend something on travelling to and from their villages. The percentages given in, this respect for Sholapur and Ahmedabad are pro- bably smaller than the average, as both cities recruit largely from the surrounding areas, and the number of workers permanently resident is larger than elsewhere. On the margin that remains after all these neces- sities have been met, there is one charge of great importance, the obli- gations arising from indebtedness—a subject which is reserved for further treatment in another chapter. The remainder, if any, can be devoted 50 the few pleasures that are open to the illiterate. The Outlook. These facts are best left to speak for themselves, ang it is unnecessary to emphasise the general poverty they disclose. Some observers prefer to dwell on the mitigations of the situation, on a com- parison of the worker’s existing privations with the hardships which forced him into industria] life, on his scanty knowledge of better things, on the endurance ang courage which enable him to tolerate his Present sondition and, indeed, to extract some pleasure from it, and even on his general inertia and lack of desire for Improvement. These also are facts and must be faced, but it is mainly ignorance of his own relative position and lack of belief in the possibility of bettering it which Ie responsible for his apathy. We rejoice at the evident signs if the awakening of the general conscience which greater knowledge

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