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 XV. - Housing of the industrial worker

Collection:: Economics Books

HOUSING OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER, 291 into operation ; and, judging from the purposes for which they have been used from time to time, there appears to be considerable uncertainty as to the class of cases to which they should properly be applied. Several applications from large industrial concerns in Bengal have been rejected within recent years, because Government was advised that these did not come under the definition laid down in Section 40 of the Land Acquisition Act. In their report the Indian Industrial Commission recommended that the local Government should acquire land compulsorily from pri- vate persons on behalf of an industrial concern, if certain conditions were satisfied. Discussing the question of industrial housing, the Commission also recommended that Government should use its power to acquire land on behalf of employers for the housing of labour subject to certain safe- guards and that, at the cost of Government or the local authorities, land might also be acquired and leased to employers at easy rates for the same purpose. We consider that, where employers are willing to cons- truct houses for employees, they should be assisted by Government to acquire the necessary building land, provided that the schemes have theapproval of the Ministry of Health. We therefore recommend that the Land Acquisition Act be so amended as to provide that the housing of labour shall be deemed to be a work likely to prove useful to the public and that the definition of “ Company ” be so modified as to include in- dustrial concerns owned by individuals or associations of individuals. These modifications do not seem to us to involve any change in the principles of the Act. Cheaper Types of Houses. Some of the type plans used by employers and others seemed to us to be unnecessarily expensive and, as it is of first importance to conserve financial resources, every effort should be made to evolve cheaper types. Acceptable designs will naturally vary from place to place according to the customs of the people, but experiments with different plans and materials cannot fail to prove advantageous. We have in mind the experiments carried out by the Empress Mills in Nagpur under the supervision of their welfare officer. There it has been demonstrated that two-roomed houses of suitable size, with adequate light and ventilation, can be constructed at a cost of Rs. 350 per unit. The development of schemes of these cheaper types would make the provi- sion of decent workers’ houses a much less remote contingency than it otherwise seems. In order to stimulate interest and to explore the best types, Government might consider the possibility of offering Prizes for plans and specifications of working class hoses. costing not more than a fixed amount. Co-operative Building Societies. A housing society on co-operative lines is being started by the Management of the Calico Mills in Ahmedabad, the workers’ share of bhe cost being advanced by the Company. Generally speaking, however, few attempts have been made to use co-operative building societies as a Means to provide additional housing for the working classes. An

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