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 XIV. - Health and welfare of the industrial worker

Collection:: Economics Books

264 CHAPTER XIV, but the majority doubt whether the number of women in those industries likely to qualify for benefits is sufficient to justify this step. Financial Aspect of the Scheme. Where maternity benefits form part of a complete State insurance scheme, no difficulties arise in obtaining contributions from industrially employed women, since these contributions are paid throughout against the incidence of sickness in general, including periods of confinement, In the absence of a State system of social insurance, however, the question of obtaining contributions from women to a maternity benefit scheme is not easy to arrange. There are two ways in which a woman could be asked to bear her share. The first method would involve payment of contributions throughout her working life ; this would mean, not only prolonged payment even beyond child-bearing age, but also payment by women who could not or did not have children. The second method would require the women to pay a fair contribution during the actual period of pregnancy ; this essentially involves early certification of preguancy, and in our view the lack of women doctors, together with the reluctance of the Indian woman to consult a male doctor, makes the plan impracticable. Under present circumstances we do not recommend that the woman worker should be asked to pay any periodical contribution. While a system involving State contributions or Government grants is desirable and would not be administratively impracticable, it is more than likely, in the absence of any general scheme of sickness insurance of which maternity benefits would form an integral part, that it would involve a disproportionate administrative cost. At this stage, therefore, we suggest a more general extension of the schemes already in operation in Bombay and the Central Provinces. In those the entire cost of the benefit is borne by the employer, and we recommend that, in the first instance, the proposed legislation should follow these lines. Government should have the power to exempt individual firms whose existing schemes are shown to be at least as liberal as those laid down in the Act. In the event of any general scheme of social insurance being adopted, maternity benefits should be incorporated and the cost shared by the State. the employer and the worker. Amount and Period of Payment of Benefit. The Central Provinces Maternity Benefit Act provides for bene- fit at the rate of the woman’s average daily earnings, calculated on the total wages earned during a period of three months preceding the day of her confinement, or at the rate of eight annas per day, whichever is less. This seems suitable for general application. We recommend that the maximum period for which any woman shall be entitled to the payment. of maternity benefit be four weeks up to and including the day of her delivery and four weeks following that day. The Act might include an injunction that an employer shall not knowingly employ a woman within four weeks after childbirth. We are aware that a similar clause in the British Factory Act proved difficult to enforce. but

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