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 XIII. - Indebtedness

Collection:: Economics Books

939 CHAPTER XIII, We recommend that the salary and wages of every workman receiving less than Rs. 300 a month be exempted entirely from the possibility of attachment. If, on examination, there are found to be objections to applying this exemption to every one employed on a salary less than Rs. 300 a month, the definition of workman in the Workmen's Compen- sation Act might be suitable. Imprisonment for Debt. We are also in favour of the modification of the law relating to imprisonment for debt. As the law stands at present, male debtors are liable to be arrested and imprisoned for six months in execution of a decree for the payment of more than Rs. 50 and for six weeks in the case of a smaller sum. We understand that the courts are usually re- luctant to order imprisonment, and the fact that the creditor has to support the debtor in prison makes the former most unwilling to secure the detention of any one who has no money. But the threat of imprisonment is a useful weapon in the hands of ‘the money-lender. In any case, we do not think that it is possible to justify the imprisonment of debtors of the type we are considering. We recommend that, at least so far as industrial workers in receipt of wages or salary amounting to less than Rs. 100 a month are concerned, arrest and imprisonment for debt be abolished except where the debtor has been proved to be both able and unwilling to pay. Provident Funds. Another form of security is given tothe money-lender in the pow- er to attach employees’ contributions to provident funds. In the case of provident funds maintained for their employees by Government and local bodies, these contributions are apparently protected from attachment ; but no similar security is given in the case of funds maintained by private employers. So long as the fund is a bona fide one, there seems no reason why the same security should not be granted. We recommend that in the case of funds certified by Government for this purpose, the con- tributions of workers should be safeguarded. We understand that the rules of funds are in a number of cases scrutinised for income-tax purposes, and it should not be difficult to distinguish the genuine funds and, if it is decided to grant exemption only to industrial workers. to limit certificates to funds catering for them. The Assistance of the Law. Although the preceding recommendations should be of consider- able assistance, they will not by themselves deal any severe blow at the existing system, and something much more drastic is required. We would repeat that much of the present misery is due to the readiness of the money-lender to enter into contracts which he knows the debtor cannot fulfil, or at best can fulfil only by suffering severe and prolonged hardship. The law should set its face sternly against such contracts. So far from doing its best to secure their enforcement, it should make that enforcement impossible. The assistance of the law should he rectrieted

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