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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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Chapter IV. - Hours in factories

Collection:: Economics Books

HOURS. IN FACTORIES. 51 goes beyond the needs of the case, and we are anxious that employers who wish to work on shift systems should be subject to as few restrictions as possible. We recommend, therefore, that in future the local Govern- ment should have the power to control overlapping shifts. By these we mean shifts which involve the simultaneous employment on work of the same kind of more than one shift of persons ; such shifts have already been made illegal in mines by the Indian Mines Act. So far as the jute industry is concerned, we understand that it is itself effecting a reform ; there has been a steady tendency to convert multiple-shift mills to the single-shift system, and it is possible that multiple-shift mills, which are ow in the minority, will disappear without official action in a short time. Sir Alexander Murray agrees with our recommendation that Government should have the power to contro] overlapping shifts but he regrets that his experience does not allow him to accept our picture of the working of the System or of its effects, Hours for Women. We received a number of opinions in favour of fixing the maximum for women’s hours at lower levels than those prescribed for men. The main arguments wm favour of this course are that women have domestic duties to perform, and that they find the long hours a greater strain. In practice, too, their hours are shorter in a number of factories. On the other hand, to restrict women by law to shorter hours than men would undoubtedly lead to the substitution of men for women, in many factories, and we believe that it, is desirable to increase rather than to diminish the openings for the employment of women. The sex disparity in many big cities, which is already a menace to the life of the industrial worker, would be further accentuated by an increase in the proportion of men employed, while it would be diminished if women were more generally employed. Moreover, if hours are limited a8 we recommend, there will be less danger of their exceeding the capacity of Indian women, Work of Half-timers. Children under 12 may not be employed in factories. The Act of 1922 provides that persons between the ages of 12 and 15 years, subject to their being certified ag physically fit, may be employed for not more than 6 hours a day. The ages for half timers were 9 to 14 years before that date, and the maximum hours were 6 in textile factories and 7 in others. Children working for the full day of 6 hours must have a rest period of half an hour, so arranged as to prevent more than 4 hours continuous work, but if the day is restricted to 5% hours’ work, no interval is neces- sary. Some difficulty has arisen from the practice of employing children under different names and with different certificates in two factories on the same day. Ttis almost impossible to prove that a manager is knowingly employing children whe are also employed elsewhere, and in 1926 the legislature added to the Factories Act a section making it possible to prosecute the parent or guardian of the child who is employed in two mills, Special vigilance and, the use of this section have combined to eliminate or greatly to reduce the evil in the Ahmedabad cotton mills,

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