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

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter XX. - Recruitment for Assam

Collection:: Economics Books

364 CHAPTER XX. suspended round his neck. The manager pays the sardar his rail fare and other necessary expenses to the nearest forwarding station of the Tea Districts Labour Association, namely, Gauhati or Goalundo. On arrival there, the sardar is met by the agent of the Association and escorted to the transit depot, where he is fed and his papers are verified. He is then given a rail ticket and travelling expenses to the local agent’s dept which is nearest to his village. The sardar in due course reports himself to the local agent who, after checking his papers, gives him a cash advance sufficient for the journey to his village and for his mainte- nance for a month or so. The sardar now departs and, if and when he returns to the local agent’s office, he reports the prospects of recruit- ment and asks for a further advance. He may even bring a recruit or two with him in order to satisfy the local agent that he means business, for the number of recruits he is likely to secure determines the amount of the second advance. The recruit produced by the sardar is ques- tioned by the local agent who, if satisfied that there is no valid objection to his being sent to Assam, enters in a register his name and other particulars as prescribed by the local Government. If so required, he also sends a copy of this register to the District Magistrate. The recruit is fed whilst he is kept at the local agent's dep6t and is given a first payment of five rupees, a few utensils, one or two blankets and some clothing. He is sent with the sardar or, if the sardar sees a pros- pect of further recruits, in charge of a peon to Goalundo or Gauhati where he is received in the transit depot. The Agent of the Tea Districts Labour Association then arranges for the final stage of his journey to the garden to which he has been recruited. Neither the sardar nor the local agent requires the recruit to sign any agreement, and his engagement is purely oral. . The conditions of employment are explained to the recruit by the sardar, but it is the local agent’s duty, by examining the recruit, to satisfy himself, so far as his knowledge allows, that there has been no material misrepresentation by the sardar. On his return to the garden the sardar is paid a commission which is generally stated to be ten rupees in the Surma valley and bwenty rupees in the Assam valley for each recruit but, as there is no recognised limit, the amount paid by some gardens is considerably igher. Defects of Act VI. Act VI of 1901, which governs recruitment for Assam has been amended on several occasions; it was radically revised in 1915, and several of its important provisions have become inoperative by notifi- cation. The Act as it stands is unintelligible to most people ; and several of its operative provisions are of doubtful validity, as they refer to a class which has now ceased to exist, namely, “labourers” who are defined as persons bound by a labour-contract to labour in a labour-district. A wit- ness representing the Tea Districts Labour Association indicated to us that the Act had only once to be taken to the High Court, and its hollow- ness would be instantly exposed. But apart from the obvious defects in form, the Act, as now in operation, is open to other objections. It

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