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 V. - Working conditions in factories

Collection:: Economics Books

CHAPTER V. Medical Inspectors. The case of medical officers stands on an entirely different footing. The medical officer, like the regular inspector, is technically qualified. Further, he has qualifications which the regular inspector lacks, but which are necessary to complete the proper inspection of factories. Many of the questions which arise in connection with factory administration require medical knowledge, and with the growing com- plexity of Indian industry, the need for this knowledge increases. It is in the larger factories that the need for inspection from a medical point of view is greatest ; but there are few factories where some medical super- vision is quite unnecessary. Werecommend that in every province there should be one officer with medical qualifications appointed as an Inspector of Factories, who should be primarily responsible for inspection from the medical standpoint. In the less important industrial provinces, where there may not be work for a full-time officer, an assistant of the Director of Public Health could undertake these duties. In the chief industrial provinces there is ample work to justify the appointment of more than one such medical inspector. There are, for example, two medical officers already employed as certifying surgeons in the Hooghly area, and the duties of certifying surgeons might be combined with those of medical inspection. While the medical inspectors might exercise the full powers of an inspector, and need not be precluded from giving attention to points lying outside their particular sphere, they would ordinarily be responsible only for the health of operatives. Where the medical inspectors and certifying surgeons are separate officers, the latter should also be em- powered as inspectors. The delimitation of the duties of the medical inspector would be a matter for the Chief Inspector of Factories and the Director of Public Health to arrange ; such matters as sanitation, ventila- bion and the purity of the atmosphere would naturally receive their special attention, and there is great need for systematic investigation into a number of questions related to the health of factory operatives, including industrial disease. Recruitment of Inspectors. 1 . | The possession of good engineering qualifications has generally been regarded as a sine qua non for appointment as factory inspector, and, owing to the paucity of Indian candidates with the qualifications required, the majority of factory inspectors have hitherto been British. The number of Indian students taking up engineering is increasing steadily, and it should not be difficult to attract suitable candidates at ceasonable rates of pay. We would observe, however, that factory inspectors are made chiefly by experience in that capacity. The highest initial qualifications do not make an officer a competent factory inspec- bor from the start ; on the other hand a candidate of character and energy, even if his technical qualifications are not of a high order, can generally become competent after training. The recent tendency in Great Britain, which has always led the way in factory inspection, has been to rely more on character and training and less on technical, i.e., engineering, quali- fications than in the past. A move in this direction nm India world

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