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 II. - Migration and the factory worker

Collection:: Economics Books

MIGRATION AND THE FACTORY WORKER, 19 could be built up in many industrial areas. The effect of this on the individual is sometimes obscured temporarily by the fact that the new recruit may have just passed through a period of Privation, but the bene- fit of the early years remains and is an asset of incalculable value. The holidays which many are able to take are also a great source of strength of mind and body, and the combination - of urban and rural life brings a width of outlook which is apt to be lacking in a purely urban population. Further, where contact is retained with the village, there is usually some kind of home to fall back upon should the need arise. The villages have hitherto provided a measure of insurance against the effects of the various changes which may reduce, Interrupt or destroy the. earning capacity of the worker. In sickness and in maternity, in strikes and lock-outs, in unemployment and in old age the village home is a refuge for many, and the fact that it exists affords a sense of security, even when it ig not required. We should not be understood as endorsing the view occasionally expressed that the factory worker usually has an alternative occupation to which he can readily turn. This is not accurate : but, for the worker who has village connections and is unable to work, the hardships caused by such ability are mitigated. The village is an infinitely better place than the city for the young and the aged, the sick, the maimed and the exhausted, the unemployed and ‘the anemployable. If the villages provide insurance for the towns, the effect is to some extent reciprocal. One of the strong arguments for the development of industries in Tndia ig the insurance which it provides against the uncertainties of agriculture. If they are developed by a Population connected with the rural areas, the benefits of this insurance are directly felt in the villages. When some of the members of a village tommunity have a source of income independent of the produce of the village, there is 5 distinct gain to the community as a whole, Educative Effects. Nor are the benefits derived from migration entirely economic In character, The Royal Commission on Agriculture hag observed that * the life of the city should quicken the minds and enlarge the outlook of a far greater number of labourers than jt corrupts’, Quy experience tends to show that migration has this effect, Further, this quicken- ing of mind ang enlargement of outlook are not limited, under the Present system, to those who g0 to the cities. The Industrial worker who, in his absence, has assisted the village by diminishing the pressure on 1ts productive capacity and hy adding to itg income, brings to it on his return a new education, He helps to diffuse throughout the country- side not merely hig knowledge of 5 wider world, but a conception of liberty and of independence that is new to village society. If the contact POW maintained were diminished or cut off, the result would be the mpoverishment, of pa] India of a more than material kind. The Future All this leads up to a practical question of vital Importance, name- ly, should efforts be directed towards building up an industrial popu- no

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