SEASONAL FACTORIES. 85 
factories is vitiated by dust and fluff, and we noticed the marked in- 
Provement effected by efficient dust-extracting machinery of the suction 
type. We recommend that owners of tea factories be required to install 
efficient dust-extracting machinery in all such factories within a speci- 
fied period and that no new factories be allowed to be built without 
such machinery. In rice milling, dust is formed in considerable quanti- 
ties both in hoppering and its ancillary processes and in polishing. The 
meal dust given off in the latter process 1s not only unpleasant but is 
stated by the Chief Inspector of Factories in Burma to increase the 
hazard of fire in the dry weather. We recommend that steps be taken 
bo compel the installation of the necessary protective machinery (e.g., 
enclosure of polishing cones) in all new mills and that freer use be made 
by local Governments of the power of inspectors to demand the instal- 
lation of such machinery in existing mills where the conditions are bad. 
Exclusion of Infants from Factory Premises. 
The exclusion of infants from the premises of seasonal factories 
has caused some difficulty. This mainly concerns ginneries, though 
other industries are also involved. In one province an order made by 
the factory Inspection department, excluding infants from ginneries but 
permitting their presence in ginnery compounds, appears to have been 
largely successful. But in another province two similar orders, issued 
in 1924 and 1926, had to be withdrawn on the ground that they could 
not be enforced without driving some of the women out of employment, 
This is due to the lack of shelter elsewhere than in the factory for the 
children of working women. It is not reasonable to require the owners 
of small factories situated in rural areas and open for a part of the year 
only to install creches in the accepted sense of the term. But where 
women are employed in any process creating an impure atmosphere, 
the factory owner should be required to set up for their infants some 
temporary shelter in the compound. If a sufficient number of children 
is involved, a woman not employed within the factory could exercige 
the required supervision. The hecessary provision could take the form 
of a welfare order of the kind recommended in the preceding chapter. 
In this regard there is considerable scope for women inspectors, not 
50 much in the actual day-to-day enforcement as in the evolving of 
suitable methods of surmounting obstacles of this kind with which 
the factory labour of women in tropical countries is still beset 
Sanitation, 
It should be observed that the recommendation made in the 
preceding chapter in respect of latrine accommodation applies both to 
perennial and seasonal factories wherever situated. Where water-borne 
conservancy is not possible, the adequacy and acceptability of pit or 
bore-hole latrines has already been demonstrated in different parts of 
India. These are cheap and, if properly constructed, odourless and 
should meet admirably the requirements of large numbers of seasonal 
factories of the smaller kind. The ordinary seasonal factory may have 
Some difficulty in complying with this requirement. particularly where