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 XXI. - Wages on planatations

Collection:: Economics Books

HEALTH AND WELFARE IN PLANTATIONS. 413 Weltare. When it is remembered that, even in England, what is generally understood as welfare work ” is only of very recent growth, tribute must be paid to the time and thought which have been devoted by individual managers to the well-being and comfort of their labour forces. In order to indicate the lines ou which welfare work has so far been evolv- ed and the methods by ‘which these might be extended and improved, it is worth mentioning a few of the activities brought to our notice. On a number of gardens two meals a day are supplied free to all children under 5 or 6 years of age. The free feeding of non-working children is a general practice on the plantations in Ceylon, where it has had a mate- rial effect on their health. We consider that this method of promoting health is a sound investment and should be generally adopted. On other gardens, mothers and their infants are supplied with blankets free of charge, and if difficulty arises in obtaining milk, free issues are also made by the estates. A group of gardens in Assam has adopted the sound practice of weighing all infants regularly and, in the case of children admitted to hospital, of recording their weights on admission and thereafter at regular intervals and at the date of vaccination. The general practice is to make special observation of the children during the annual health survey, when house-to-house examination of every resident is made, but a more frequent examination of the young children would bring to the early notice of the medical officer those who are not in a good state of health and would place him in a better position to plan preventive treatment. Finally in one garden in Assam, the manager tries to ensure a better standard of health in the children by adding 309% to the pay of those labourers who have three or more non-working children living on the plantation. Recreation. Although we were informed that the labourers took little interest in games and pastimes, a number of attempts have been made to provide both recreation and entertainment. In certain gardens ‘ootball teams have been organised, whilst in others such entertain- nents as adult sports and tribal dances have been successfully arranged. We would urge the desirability of garden managers assisting in the orga- aisation of such efforts, and advocate the setting apart of playing jelds for general recreational purposes. In one group of gardens in the Surma. Valley, the managers have engaged the services of a touring cinema company during the cold weather for the entertainment of their labourers. In another garden in Assam which we visited, the manager is a skilled sinema, operator and the periodical cinema entertainments given by him are immensely appreciated by large audiences. The lantern slide and the cinema film are means both of education and amusement which might be much more widely used than at present in every plantation area, where the labourers are often more isolated than in their own villages. Initial difficulties might be experienced in obtaining material to suit she understanding of illiterate audiences, but once the demand was made

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