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 IV. - Hours in factories

Collection:: Economics Books

52 . CHAPTER 1V, where the practice was formerly prevalent, but similar action does not appear to have been taken in the Bengal jute mills, where certifying surgeons report the existence of a similar abuse. We recommend that special and continuous attention should be given to this matter by the local Government and its officers. Persons who are 15 years or over are treated as adults. Recent years have seen a tendency to employ fewer children, and child labour has been replaced by adult labour and particular- ly women’s labour. The proportion of women employed in factories to the total number of operatives has risen, as that of children has fallen ; the latter is now below 4 per cent. For reasons we have already given and because many children do not come to the industrial areas till full- time work is available for them, we regard this as a commendable tendency. Children’s Ages and Hours. Children are almost universally employed on a half-time basis, and the reduction of adult hours will remove any objection to the reduction of children’s hours to a maximum of 5 daily. In factories working adults a 9 hour day, 4% will be the most suitable hours for children. We have considered the possibility of reducing children’s hours to a lower level than 5 daily, but we do not recomend this step, as any further substantial limitation, which would prevent the employment of children on half-time work, would probably lead to their complete elimination in most cases. While we have no desire to encourage the employment of children, we doubt if the extent of their present employment goes much beyond the provision of jobs for those who would live in the industrial areas in any case. Along with the question of hours, we have considered the suitability of the present limits of age for children, namely 12 and 15 years, and have decided to recommend no change. We do not regard a 4% or 5 hour day, on work of the character which children are generally re- quired to do, as excessive for children of these ages, provided always that the existing law which requires that the child should be medically certified as fit for such employment, is strictly enforced. A Minority View. Mr Cliff, Mr Joshi, Diwan Chaman Lall and Miss Power dissent from this view and are of the opinion that the minimum age of employment in factories coming under the Factories Act should be raised forthwith to 13 years, and that five years thereafter Government should reconsider the position with a view to bringing the age into conformity with the standard laid down in Article IT of the International Convention dealing with the minimum age for admission of children into industrial employment. In Article VI of that Convention, which came into force in June 1921, special provision was made in the case of India, allowing for a minimum age of 12 years. They hold that the intervening ten years has given both the community and organised industry, with which we are concerned in this chapter, a reasonable period in which to become adjusted to a higher minimum age standard. In no part of India did the physique of the children working in regulated factories appear to them to be of a standard higher than that of Western children of similar age or to be such as would justify the continued

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