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 III. - The employment of the factory worker

Collection:: Economics Books

36 CHAPTER III. unemployment insurance, but we cannot regard any national system of insurance with which we are familiar as feasible at present in India. With the existing turnover and in the absence of an industrial population which is both permanent and regular, the risk is not a calculable one. Therefore, even if the workers were able and willing to contribute, there is no basis on which a scheme could be built. This does not, however, relieve the State of the responsibility of taking such measures to deal with unemployment, when it arises, as are likely to be effective. This responsibility has long been recognised in India ; but the system of un- employment relief was devised before organised industry had developed and has been evolved with reference solely to the rural population. It has been of great value to them at times and might prove capable of adaptation to the towns. The principles and methods of the system seem to us to be more likely to be successful in dealing with urban unemploy- ment under present conditions than those of any Western scheme of insurance. The essence of the system, as we understand it, is the pre- paration beforehand of schemes of work for the workless, and the putting of these into operation when the flow of labour to test works has demon- strated the need of relief. The wage paid is a bare subsistence rate, and it is coupled with subsidiary measures of relief for those who are not able-bodied and for dependents. The works selected for the purpose are capable of being carried out by unskilled labour and are usually designed to be of lasting benefit to the community. There should certainly be no difficulty in providing such work in urban areas. The industrial areas in particular offer great scope for improvements in the way of slum clearance and the construction of roads and drainage. In some areas, work of this kind, if undertaken on the lines followed by Improvement Trusts, should involve less financial loss than those avail- able in rural areas and might even prove remunerative., The cost of test works would be small and, at times like the present, these would show whether there was acute need of more extensive measures. Care would have to be taken to avoid attracting labour from the country to the towns, but we believe that this danger could be obviated. We recom- mend that along these lines Government should examine the possibi- lities of making preparations to deal with unemployment when it arises, and of taking action where it is now required. We would not preclude the examination of additional methods of ensuring against unemploy- ment. The substantial success which has been achieved, on a large scale, in assisting the agriculturalist to tide over periods of stress, gives reason to hope that the much smaller problem of assisting the un- employed industrial worker should not prove incapable of solution.

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