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 II. - Migration and the factory worker

Collection:: Economics Books

1D) CHAPTER II. centres with a definite concentration of industries, the more important are Madras, Cawnpore, J amshedpur and Rangoon. Many of the remain- ing factories are concentrated in capitals where the factory population is a small part of the total population, such as Delhi, Lahore, Lucknow and Nagpur. Centres of this type have generally a few larger factories, and a considerable number of small ones which serve the miscellaneous needs of the city and its vicinity. Apart from such centres, the only approach bo a concentration of factories is in the main coalfields and in a few cotton mill towns such as Sholapur. (2) SOURCES OF LABOUR. Centres Recruiting from Short Distances. The smaller centres everywhere draw on the surrounding rural areas for all the workers they require, except labour demanding special skill. © As industry expands in a centre, the area of recruitment has to be snlarged. If the centre is situated in a region where population is dense and pressure on the land is great, a large addition to the labour force may be obtained without going far afield ; this is illustrated by Ahmed- abad and Cawnpore. The cotton mills of Ahmedabad draw 659, of their labour from Ahmedabad district and the adjacent State of Baroda, while most of the remainder come from areas not far distant, .e., other Gujerat districts and the adjoining parts of Rajputana and Kathiawar. Cawnpore has close to it areas where the pressure of population is severe, and the bulk of its labour comes from the adjoining districts and those mmediately beyond them. Railway workshops frequently show a greater variety of labour and may include substantial numbers from more dis- tant areas ; the grant to employees of travelling concessions increases the attraction of the work for labour from a distance, and the type of work does not appeal to the people resident in some areas. In every centre of importance a certain number of the factory workers come from long listances ; men from Madras and the United Provinces may be found in factories all over India Centres Recruiting from Long Distances. The only centres which have reached the stage of being compelled to go far afield for the bulk of their labour are Rangoon, Jamshedpur and the two big centres, Bombay and the Hooghly area. Rangoon, like Burma, generally, has to look mainly to Indian labour for the maintenance of its industries as the Burman shows little desire to enter the lower ranks of factory employment. The factories of Rangoon therefore rely on the great stream of migration from across the Bay of Bengal ; the workers come chiefly from the Telugu speaking tracts adjoining the aorthern Madras ports. Jamshedpur was established in an area that was practically virgin forest and required a large number of workers from the start ; there was a big expansion of work during and after the war, which demanded a further rapid increase in numbers. It is not Surprising, therefore, that the labour force here should include sections from nearly every province of India: in particular, Bengal, Bihar and

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