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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XV. - Housing of the industrial worker

Collection:: Economics Books

272 CHAPTER XV, beings are born, sleep and eat, live and die. The one bright feature in a number of centres is the effort made by the more advanced employers to provide housing. Employers’ housing schemes vary greatly ; some are admirable and others less so ; but the worst is usually better than the best of the alternative accommodation open to the worker. To these comments, which are applicable to the industrial areas generally, we would add observations on the more important areas individually. The ‘“ Bustees ” of Bengal. Owing to the rapid and extensive development of industries in the Calcutta and Howrah areas, land for housing has become scarce and commands extraordinarily high prices. The workers have for long found it difficult to obtain adequate housing accommodation, and to meet their need, private landlords, often mill sardars, erect houses and huts in the neighbourhood of the mills and let these at rents so high as to absorb a considerable proportion of the workers’ earnings. Little or no consider- ation being given to the amenities of life, every available foot of land has been gradually built upon until the degree of overcrowding and conges- tion, particularly in certain parts of Howrah, is probably unequalled in any other industrial area in India. In Calcutta, the activities of the Im- provement Trust in driving roads through some of the worst slums and in providing drainage have only partially improved prevailing conditions in the working class areas. + Employers’ Schemes in Howrah. The housing schemes provided by a few of the mills and fac- tories in Howrah present a striking contrast to adjoining slums. Fre- quently, however, their lay-out has been controlled by strict limitations of space so that, although there is adequate provision of water-taps, surface drains and septic-tank latrines, and conservancy is given due atten- tion, the back-to-back type of dwelling has often been adopted, the rows of houses are insufficiently spaced out, and the size of the individual rooms may be below recognised health standards. At the same time, these mill bustees are immensely superior to most of the other housing accommoda- tion available and give an indication of what still waits to be done for the rest of the working population. Employers’ Schemes in the Jute Mills Areas. In 53 mills for which figures have been received, nearly 41,000 houses have been built by the employers to accommodate about 131,000 of their workers and it has been estimated “that between 30 and 409, of the total labour force in these areas is housed by the various com- panies. Most of these houses are built in back-to-back rows and consist of one room with a verandah in front in which cooking and washing is done. Inthe better lines the space between the rows is paved with brick and drained. Windows and roof ventilation are also provided in some types, whilst artificial lighting has been extended to a number of lines, A large number of septic-tank latrines have effected immense improvements in conservancy and sanitation. Water supplies are usually provided by

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Report of the Royal Commission on Labour in India

Monograph

Chapter

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

Chapter

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation