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 XXI. - Wages on planatations

Collection:: Economics Books

383 CHAPTER XXIL—WAGES ON PLANTATIONS. We proceed now to the conditions of employment on the planta- tions and deal in this chapter with the economic position of the plantation worker, ¢.e., with matters connected with wages and the system of wage payment, leaving to the subsequent chapter matters con- nected with health and welfare, which are also ‘of fundamental import- ance. Inregardto wages, there are features which are common to almost all plantations, but there are important variations of method, and it is convenient to deal with each area separately. We begin with’ Assam, which is the most important, and then. deal with the remaining planting areas in North India and finally with those in South India. We regret that no account is possible of labour conditions in the plantations in Burma, which we were unable to visit and in regard to which little information was available. We understand that, as a result of the continuing depres- sion in rubber, many of these plantations have closed down temporarily, and the number of workers has decreased considerably during the last year. System of Wage Payment in Assam. In the Assam tea gardens wages and the system of wage payment were considered by the Assam Labour Enquiry Committee of 1921-22, which was appointed by the Government of Assam after the general exodus of the preceding year. The report of this Committee gives detailed infor- mation on the subject, and it is necessary here to refer only to the special features of the system of wage payment and to indicate the trend of wages since the publication of that report. The wages of the Assam tea garden workers are, for the most part, based on piece rates. , The workers are employed in gangs under the supervision of sardars who, in addition to a fixed monthly wage, receive a commission varying from half an anna to two annas in the rupee on the earnings of their gangs. So far as the workers are concerned, there are two distinct systems of wage pay- ment. The older system, still in, operation on many gardens, is known, as the hazira and ticca system under which the worker is required to com- plete a standard daily task, namely, the kazira—a term now applied both to the task and to the sum payable for its performance. The time which an average worker takes to earn the hazira is generally about four to five hours, or half a day, and there is thus the opportunity of working “ overtime ”’ usually at higher rates, the payment for which is known as ticca. The payment for the hazira varies in most districts from 4 to 6 annas for men and from 3 to 5 annas for women. The ticea is usually 4 annas for men and 3 annas for women, but the amount varies with the extent of overtime. We were given to understand that in Doom-Dooma, where conditions are exceptional, the payment for what corresponds to the hazira is 8 annas for men and 6 annas for women and that the ticca rate is 4 annas. This system has been largely replaced by the unit system, the basic principle of which is to give the worker greater latitude in the matter of attendance and to leave it to him to earn as much or as little as he chooses. Under this system payment is made for each unit of work. which in the case of hoeing and pruning is

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