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 XXII. - Burma and India

Collection:: Economics Books

BURMA AND INDIA, 435 storing possessions and sleep outside on the streets or pavements. In the monsoon and cold weather months, however, overcrowding must be intense. Accommodation being so restricted, in the dry season it is not anusual for larger numbers of rickshaw pullers to spend the nights in or ander their rickshaws. Non-enforcement of Bye-Laws. Municipal bye-laws in regard to these lodging-houses are gene- rally disregarded. During the past two or three years, municipal inspectors have attempted to secure some improvement by prosecuting the worst offenders, but no vigorous campaign has been instituted. T'wo reasons are given for this defective control. One is that the magis- trates treat delinquents too leniently, the ordinary sentence for breach of the regulations being only a small fine. The second is that, if the rules were enforced and each lodging-house only housed the regulation number of persons, crowds of labourers would have no shelter of any kind. The suggestion was made to us that, in order to force a crisis, strict enforce- ment of the regulations should be applied to the worst areas, the most propitious moment for inception of the campaign being at the end of the monsoon. The argument was that this plan would not add to human dis- tress, that many of the excess numbers would thereby be forced to return bo their villages in India, and that the authorities would be compelled to adopt more active steps to amend the present state of affairs. There can be no doubt that a large amount of additional accommodation is urgently required if the numbers of immigrant labourers are maintained at their present level, but it is not certain that the present laissez-faire attitude Joes not impose greater hardships than would result ultimately from a much more strict enforcement of the existing municipal regulations. Inadequacy of Water Supply. Other important features intimately connected with these condi- tions add to the evils of the situation. The present water supply has long been inadequate to meet the needs of the total population, and the Public Health Committee, in its report, sums up the situation by stating that there can be no marked improvement in general conditions until an adequate supply is available. The Corporation has definitely announced that it cannot supply water to any areas not already served, and this decision has prevented the development of housing schemes on land to which water has not been laid. The problem cannot be solved by the sinking of wells. The Government, recognising the difficulties of the situation, decided in 1926 to bear the entire cost of investigation of additional sources from the dual point of view of water and eleciric power supply, but none of the proposed schemes has yet been undertaken, mainly because of the large expenditure involved. As a result of the shortage of water, large sec- sions of the city are without sewers, and because of the increased diffi- sulties of ensuring efficient sanitation, the death rate of these sections is generally higher than that of other sections more fortunately situated. This defect is so pronounced that it has been proposed to supply river water for flushing the drains and for cleansing the paved drainage spaces. 2p

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