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

376 CHAPTER XX. where health and welfare receive adequate attention and where sufficient land is available for private cultivation. On some of these the labour force has settled contentedly, and no recruiting has been necessary for many years. At the other extreme are gardens where conditions are such that all attempts at recruitment have failed to secure anything approaching a contented or adequate labour force. We deal later with conditions obtaining on gardens which have an important effect on recruiting, but wish to refer here to two definite deterrents to recruitment that call for a speedy remedy, namely, the lack of liberty for the worker and the difficulty of returning to his home. Contracts and the Worker. Recruitment for Assam has suffered grave injury in the past owing to the system of penal contract and of private arrest, to which we have already referred. The planters have shown a lack of confidence in their ability to retain labour, and there has been a constant tendency to rely on restraints of various kinds to keep the labourer on the garden. Even to-day, where successive amendments of the law have removed all the statutory restraints, there is ample evidence to show that the old faith in restraint in some form persists. The planter, to his own prejudice, has deliberately allowed the old ideas of the penal contract to linger in the minds of his workers. The bonus (commonly Rs. 12 for a man and Rs. 8 for a woman), which was given to a labourer when he entered on a “labour-contract ”, continues to be paid and is to this day referred to as the “ girmit” or agreement money. It was stated that the disconti- nuance of the bonus would give rise to discontent as the workers had secome accustomed to this lump sum payment ; but this does not explain why it is still regarded as an inducement for future service. On many gardens the thumb-impression is taken when the bonus is paid, although this is not done when the worker receives his wages. The explanation given by one witness was that for purposes of audit a receipt was necessary in the case of the bonus, but no such receipts were required in the case of wages. The thumb-impression is usually taken on a register or on a piece of paper, but some planters have devised a form which bears a marked resemblance to the form used in the days of the penal contract, and we came across an instance where the thumb-impression was still being taken on the old form. In theory, the object of the thumb-impres- sion is to bind the labourer by a civil agreement, but as he is not likely to appreciate the difference between this and a penal contract, the prac- tical result is that he believes himself still bound by a penal contract. In a number of instances the bonus is not in fact claimed, which shows that it continues to be regarded as a gift fatal to the liberty of its recipient. So far as we could ascertain, few steps had been taken to ac- quaint the labourers with the vital change made in the law ; and some officials appeared to be apprehensive of the consequences of any sudden access of knowledge of this kind. . Restraints on Workers’ Movements. In other directions, too, there is evidence that the Iabourer’s liberty is incomplete. The workers, for the most part, live in lines to

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