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 XXV. - Labour and the constitution

Collection:: Economics Books

MINUTE BY SIR VICTOR SASSOON, 477 uncollated but nevertheless considerable volume of evidence which tends to show that the press of population on the land is continually increasing. In my view every facility should be given to enable the surplus population to migrate with ease and settle down in the districts where labour is required for industrial purposes. There is a school of thought among employers which views with sympathy the improvement of labour conditions to whatever point is considered desirable by those interested in labour reform, provided that the extra cost can be covered by the institution of bounties or an increase in protective duties. I am not in agreement with the above view in principle. I appreciate that the increasing pressure on land makes it not only desirable but necessary that industry in India should become sufficiently prosperous to absorb the growing percent- age of those born on the land whom the land cannot support; even the most ardent champion of rural industries must uphold any measures of protection necessary to place Indian industry in a position to compete successfully with foreign competition and maintain a steady develop- ment : nor can anyone cavil at a policy whereby the standard of living of the industrial worker is kept at a higher level than in agricultural districts. But any policy which raises the cost of the article to the consumer in order that the industrial worker may achieve a standard of living disproportionately greater than that of his agricultural brother, is justifiably open to criticism since it would involve the taxation of approximately 340 million people for the benefit of about two million industrial workers. Some of the recommendations in the Report with which I am in sympathy are put forward in rather stronger terms than I can subscribe to ; nor must I be held to have accepted without reservation all the arguments developed in the Report in favour of recommendations with which I am in agreement. It will be noticed that in Chapter XX my colleagues recommend that access should he available to the workers’ lines in the plantations of Assam and that Government should take the necessary action to achieve this end : while I agree in principle that such access should be established, this matter has been and is receiving the attention of the Assam Government. I can visualise possible difficulties to Government in times of political turmoil if such access is uncontrolled in distant rural areas and would prefer to leave the question to the sympathetic consideration of the Government concerned rather than make a strong and definite recommendation. 1 Tt will further be noticed that the whole Report is studded with aspirations to the effect that the recommendations will benefit the employer as well as labour. In my opinion only an undue feeling of optimism on the part of my colleagues can justify this view in every case: I am by no means so certain that industry generally will share it. No attempt has been made nor would it be possible to give an estimate of what would be the cost of the various recommendations which my colleagues desire to lay on industry and the community at large, but that this cost would be no small item there can be no question.

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