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

BURMA AND INDIA, 44 Conference “that adequate attention should be paid to the question of immigration of Indian labour and that provision should be made for the regulation of the conditions of both the work and life of the immi- yrants ”. They added to this: “The sub-Committee also especially stress the importance of there being no discrimination as regards Indians entering Burma ”, and we believe that it would be unwise at present to impose restrictions which are not designed to benefit labour itself. We recommend that, as soon as a decision has been taken regarding the constitutional position of Burma, the question be examined by the Governments of Burma and India in consultation with all the interests soncerned. Statistics. In the meantime, further statistical information regarding immigrant labour is urgently 1equired. The main need here is to secure reasonably accurate figures bearing on the extent of employment available at different seasons and the movements of immigrant labour in search of work. This cannot be obtained by enquiries limited to Rangoon, or even to industry. It will be necessary to examine the position in respect of the demand for agricultural labour ; and we do not suggest that the material can be obtained without skill and patience. But, until it is possible to say how many immigiants Burma requires and can maintain on a 1easonable standard throughout the year, and not merely during months or days of employment, the basis for a sound immigration policy is lacking. Weakness of Labour. } Whatever steps are taken to regulate immigration, it is essential that satisfactory conditions of life and work should be maintained for the immigrant population. We are satisfied that, except where regular em- ployment is available, the present conditions are unsatisfactory in several respects. Indian labour suffers from all the disadvantages of being in a foreign country and serving there for a short term ; it is unskilled and leaderless and is divided into races that are not likely to combine among themselves, and still less likely to combine with Burmese labour. There is no Indian province where industrial workers are less organised than in Burma, and there appears little prospect, in the near future, of the effec- bive and permanent organisation of the mass of Indian labour. The workers are aware that their only alternative to accepting such conditions as are offered is a return to penurious circumstances in India, and even that return is not always possible. The employers are in a position to ensure that their claims and difficulties receive adequate consideration ; the workers, whose need of consideration is greater, are not vocal. In many cases, owing to the prevalence of the maistry system, they are not. able even to press their needs on the firms under which they are employed. The continuance of the present conditions in Rangoon involves not merely hardship for many immigrants but peril to the healthy develop- ment of Burma. The maintenance of a large mass of labour which is in- adequately protected, is bound to lower the general standard of life and

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