UNREGULATED FACTORIES. 9% 
provinces where this type of labour is most prevalent, we are confident 
from the evidence submitted to us, as well as from our own personal 
observations, that it is sufficiently large in certain areas to constitute 
an evil which demands immediate remedy. 
Carpet Weaving. 
Carpet weaving is done in several parts of India, sometimes 
as a cottage industry, as at Mirzapur in the United Provinces, and some- 
times as a factory industry, where a number of looms are concentrated 
in one shed, as in the Amritsar district of the Punjab. In the case of 
the factories, the hours of work are confined to those of daylight ; artificial 
lighting is not normally used except in the case of occasional rush orders, 
The sheds are open to the air on one side and often to the sunlight, but 
too frequently the earth-floor is damp, the surrounding yards dirty, 
the drains open and evil-smelling, and the latrine accommodation inade- 
Juate or non-existent. The work is usually done in a cramped posture. 
Children in Amritsar Carpet Factories. 
The main point to be observed in this industry is again the 
employment of young children. In the carpet factories of Amritsar 
these children are employed not directly by the factory owner but 
by the weaving masters, who are responsible both for engaging them 
and for paying their wages. The manager eoncerns himself solely 
With the master weaver who is paid on a contract basis, 7.e., so much 
for each carpet, according to its size, quality and design. There is 
for the most part no limitation on the children’s hours, other than that 
imposed by the exigencies of daylight and the need of rest intervals, 
though holidays are generally obtained by taking advantage of both 
Hindu and Musalman religious festivals. No girl labour is employ- 
ed. For the most part boys start at 9 years of age, though in some 
cases it may be as low as 6 years. Although the method by which this 
boy labour is obtained varies in details in different parts of the district, 
its essential characteristics are the same throughout. Where the 
child is not the son or a near relative of the weaving master, he is 
normally the child of a man who, in return for a loan of money from the 
weaving master, contracts out the labour of his child at so many rupees 
(7, 9, ete., according to the age of the child) per month. The duration 
of the contract, which is sometimes set out in a formal document, 
would appear to be determined by the repayment of the loan. It is 
not without significance that one Witness, who was Managing Director 
of a leading carpet manufacturing firm, declared, when shown such a 
document found by us on his own premises and drawn up only a few 
weeks previously, that that was the first time he had ever heard of the 
existence of written contracts of the kind, excusing his ignorance on 
the ground that he had nothing to do with the children ” and dealt 
only with the master weavers. Yet, on his own admission, in this in- 
dustry two of the four persons on the normal-sized loom are generally 
children under 12 years, the remaining two being a boy of over 14 years 
and the master weaver himself. It was clear to us from the evidence