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 III. - The employment of the factory worker

Collection:: Economics Books

28 .. CHAPTER III. properly in a school after that work ends or before it begins. This is true of all children, but especially of those whose heredity and environ- ment do not pre-dispose them to mental work. The half-timer, from his own point of view, is merely undertaking an extra task until the law permits him to earn a higher wage, by which time he is too often ready to forget what he has learned. A further factor which diminishes the value of concentrating on half-timers is that in some industries they are few or unknown, and in others their numbers are diminishing. Education of Workers’ Children. We recognise that the education of the industrial population on a large scale must, to some extent, wait on developments in the bigger world outside industry, and that in any event the process must be gradual ; but employers in many cases would be making a valuable contribution if they were prepared to develop the education of their workers’ children in their factory schools. The non-working child is likely to get much more advantage from such education than the half-timer. The difficulty here is the economic pressure which tends to drive the child to work at an early age. But we believe that employers who, as some have already donc, make the small outlay necessary to keep such children at school will be doing a real social service ; moreover, they will probably reap the benefit later by introducing a better type of worker, thus paving the way for selected men to rise higher. Assignment of Responsibility. At the same time, the main responsibility for education in indus- trial areas cannot be thrown upon employers. In this, as in other matters, some employers have done admirable work in the attempt to remedy the deficiencies of the responsible authorities, and we believe that few would be unwilling to co-operate if definite and reasonable schemes were put before them. For example, the Indian Jute Mills Association, while emphasising the view that it was not the employers’ duty to educate labour, expressed its readiness to co-operate with Government in the matter, if invited to do so. Without doubt the task is primarily one for the community, acting through local bodies and Government, and we would repeat, in the interests of Indian industry and labour, that the industrial areas have a special claim to attention. We recognise the difficulty created by the fact that most industrial workers spend their childhood in villages and not in cities ; but there are many children in the industrial areas who will subsequently enter industry. There is a strong case for the preferential treatment of those areas in view of the economic results to be obtained. It is for the education authorities to take the lead, but the end in view justifies them in calling on emplovers’ associa- tions and individual employers to assist. Application of Compulsion. For rapid progress, the application of compulsion is desirable. We regretted to find that in some parts of India there was a tendency, in applying compulsory methods, for municipalities to exclude wards peopled hy factory labour on the ground of the backwardness of the population.

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