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 XII. - The income of the industrial worker

Collection:: Economics Books

THE INCOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER. 211 chapters we have made recommendations designed to improve matters in this respect in various branches of industry. But we would again press the importance of substituting, as far as possible, the regular for the irregular worker, and employers can do much in this direction. It may be urged that, if Wage rates are not raised, the only effect is to en- rich some workers whilst preventing others from entering industrial employment, with no resultant benefit, This, however, is a short-sight- ed view. Even if the surplus workers that the factories now attract to the city could find nothing to do in their villages, they would still be better there, where they are in healthier surroundings and can be supported at less expense. It has always to be remembered that the villages offer at least sporadic work to all. The reduction of the numbers in the industrial centres would ease the problems of housing, sanitation, medical attention and health generally. Finally, there is the increased efficiency which the regular and better-paid workers would attain with benefit to themselves, to their employers and to the nation. VI. Industry and the Community. Before turning to another direct method of raising the standard of living frequently suggested by witnesses—namely, the application of minimum wages, we must refer to an aspect of the position which is often overlooked, both in this and in other connections. Indian industry is not a world in itself ; it is an element, and by no means the most im- portant element, in the economic life of the community. Care must be taken, therefore, to ensure that, in adopting measures for the betterment of industry or of industrial workers, the interests of the community as a whole are not overlooked. It is obviously possible to raise the standard of living of sections of industrial workers by methods which would in- volve the diminution of the national Income that is available for other sections of the community. On the other hand, the prosperity of the industrial worker can be advanced in such a manner as to enrich rather than to impoverish the rest of the community. It is to these methods that attention must be confined. The Minimum Wage Convention. We received a considerable volume of evidence in the course of our tour on the practicability of instituting statutory minimum wages, and it became increasingly clear that, whereas the idea was now generally current among those concerned with or interested in industry, its impli- cations were very variously interpreted and by no means generally under- stood. The majority of witnesses in favour of the principle appeared to desire the arbitrary fixing of wages for industrial workers at a level suffi cient to provide what appeared to them a reasonable standard of living, apparently without regard to the comparative prosperity of industry or the altimate effect on the economic structure of India as a whole. The opposition to a minimum wage suggested that it was precisely this view of the question which wag uppermost in the minds of those who led it, A few witnesses had evidently devoted deeper thought to the theory of the subject, but their discussion wag largely academic, and they were for the

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