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 XXII. - Burma and India

Collection:: Economics Books

TT 1 CHAPTER XXIII. ‘mmigrant Labour. Nearly all this labour consists of immigrants and, to a large extent, of immigrants who stay only for a short term. Separate figures for industrial labour are not available, but taking four of the five Indian races which supply nearly all the labour, the numbers of men in Burma who were born in and outside Burma at the 1921 census were as follows — Telugus Tamils 4 Hindustanis Urivas Race Born in Burma. | 10,384 29,536 | 12,820 1.076 | Born outside Burma. 100,196 59,011 68,580 | 31.896 | Total. 110,580 81,647 81,400 32,902 Percentage born outside Burma. 01 72 84 97 Telugus and Uriyas, who show the highest percentage from out- side Burma, contain a larger proportion of industrial workers than the sthers. In the case of the fifth race, the Chittagonians, a large number were born and have settled in Burma, but they are not mainly engaged in organised industry. - The extent to which Indian labour is migratory is equally well illustrated by the fact that, although in the decade 1911-21 the Indian immigrants numbered well over two million, the increase in the Indian population in Burma was only 142,000, ¢.e., from 745,000 to 887,000, From 1922 to 1929 on an average nearly 320,000 Indian immigrants per year entered Rangoon, the port of entry for four-fifths of these immi- grants, including nearly all the industrial workers. The annual average of the number of Indian emigrants leaving that port in the same period was about 260,000. Among the immigrants there were more than 12 men for every woman. We believe that, if separate figures were available for the industrial workers, they would show an even greater sex disparity. Recruiting of Immigrants. Of the Indian immigrants to Rangoon about one-third come from Calcutta and one-third from the Coromandel ports, the Hindus janis coming from the former and the Telugus from the latter; Uriyas are said to come from both. The remaining important classes of immigrants are the Tamils from Madras and the Chittagonians from Chittagong. The immigration is entirely uncontrolled, but it is not entirely unassisted. Employment in the rice mills is secured on a system with which we deal in more detail later, and which involves the grant of practically all responsibility for labour to maisiries or contractors. We quote the following from Mr J. J. Bennison’s Report of an Enquiry into the Standard and Cost of Living of the Working Classes in Rangoon .— “ Most of the paddy carriers are recruited in Tndia. The sub-maistries either them- selves go to India or send their agents there about October to negotiate with prospect- ve recruits. These recruits are generally well-known to the sub-maistries and are

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