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

£90 CHAPTER XXII. for this reason that the Bengal bill to which we have referred proposed to include zamindars areas within the jurisdiction of the Board of Health. Whilst recognising these difficulties and dangers, we consider that, for the present, it is preferable to limit’ a Board’s control to plantations, although it would always be open to the Board to report to the local Government any action necessary to bring conditions in neighbouring areas up to a reasonable standard. The inclusion of other areas would involve both their taxation and their representation on the Board and would introduce problems different from those presented by plantations. For these reasons we consider that Government should remain directly responsible for public health in such areas: the presence on the Board of Government health officials will go far to secure what is reasonably possible in areas whose health is a matter of interest or concern to neighbouring plantations, Finance. Each Board should be financed by means of an annual cess levied on all plantations within its area. A minimum amount should be laid down in the statute constituting the Board, and this should be fixed high enough to ensure that the Board will have a surplus income suffi- ciently large to permit of active advance being made in the improvement of health conditions, after providing for all essential activities including the payment of an adequate staff. We estimate that the approximate cost of the staff and establishment, inclusive of salaries, rents and allow- ances, would amount to about Rs. 70,000 in the case of the larger Boards, although for the smaller Boards smaller amounts would suffice. The Board should have authority, subject to this minimum and to an agreed maximum, to fix a rate of cess for each year recoverable as a public de- mand. In Ceylon the Medical Wants Ordinance for the plantation districts has been financed by an export cess of 15 cents per 100 lbs. of tea, 15 cents per 100 Ibs. of cocoa and 75 cents per 100 lbs. of rubber. . We do not suggest that this method is suitable for India and we put forward two alternatives for consideration. In one the cess would be based on planted acreage and in the other on resident population. We recom- mend that a final decision in this matter be taken after consultation be- tween the local Governments and the industry, but whichever method is adopted, the cess should be so fixed as to give each Board the surplus in- some which is so necessary. As it is important that the formation of Boards should not discourage private enterprise, where this is directed along proper channels, we advocate the adoption of the system in force in Ceylon, where rebates of the cess are made to estates according to a system of marks awarded by the medical inspecting authorities for housing, medical facilities, anti-malaria work and other amenities of which they approve. It should be laid down, however, that in no case will the rebate exceed two-thirds of the amount of cess collected. We are not unmindful of the difficulties of the present position in the matter of finance, and the proposals made in this chapter should be read subject to what is said in the opening paragraph of Chapter XIV. We would add that we understand that there is an accumulated balance

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