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 XXV. - Labour and the constitution

Collection:: Economics Books

LABOUR AND THE CONSTITUTION. 463 and the provincial committees on the constitution, without any uni- form conclusion being reached. We cannot claim to have devoted to the subject the attention it has received at the hands of these bodies, and a proper examination of so wide an issue would take us far outside our terms of reference. We can say, however, with confidence that, if special electorates are to remain a feature of the Indian constitution, there is hardly any class with so strong a claim to representation by this method as industrial labour. As regards the proper strength of labour representation, we- cannot make any quantitative proposals in the ab- sence of particulars of the future authority, size and general composition of the legislatures. Industrial associations have been given substantial representation by means of special constituencies, and a number of seats are also given to associations which are partly commercial and partly industrial. Even after the minor reforms made in 1926, industrial labour by comparison with employers has been under-represented. Most of the bodies which have been set up to advise on the future constitution have recommended strengthening the representation of labour, and we urge that, if special constituencies are retained, it should be recognised that labour has not less claim to representation than employers. Election and Nomination. The labour seats in the Legislative Assembly and the provin- cial legislatures, which number 10 in the aggregate, are all filled by nomi- nation. It is generally recognised that the system of nomination is unsatisfactory, and it has evidently been adopted only because of the difficulties of devising a satisfactory method of election. With a system of nomination, the whole educative force of election is lost, and however carefully the representatives are selected by the nominating authority, it is difficult for labour to feel the same confidence in them as it would in elected representatives. Further, the force and authority of the repre- sentative himself is weakened by the fact that he has not been elected. We observe that, of the provincial committees appointed to confer with the Indian Statutory Commission, the Bombay Committee favours direct election by members of registered trade unions, while the Bengal and United Provinces Committees favour nomination. The others do not discuss the method of election, but the Madras Committee observes that industrial labour is not sufficiently organised to be deparately represented. The Indian Central Committee’s report suggests separate electorates for organised labour in all the provinces and in the Central Legislature, with- out particularising the method of election. Finally, we quote the follow- ing from the report of the Indian Statutory Commission under the head “ Representation of Labour’ :— “We have made careful inquiries with a view to making adequate arrangements for the representation of labour employed in large-scale industry in various parts of India, but no ready-made solution is available. Mr. Whitley’s Commission will doubtless throw more light on a very obscure problem. * * * * The best suggestion we can make is that in every province the Governor should have the duty of drawing up rules for securing, by the means which in existing circumstan. ces are the best available, labour representation. If the Governor finds that for the present he must still resort to nomination he should consider whether there are suit- able labour oreanisations which he might consult before making his choice ”

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