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CHAPTER VIII, 
worked by part-time agricultural workers between crops and are often 
closed during the rains. The Madras mines include a number of open 
pits in which quarrying is done by unskilled and often casual workers 
drawn from the neighbouring villages. From the labour point of view, 
mica mining hardly falls within the category of organised indus- 
try as the workers are not wholly or even primarily dependent 
on the industry. One large mica firm maintains its own hospital, 
and a number of firms contribute towards a Government dispensary 
and hospital. The small scale of nearly all the mines makes the provision 
of adequate medical facilities difficult. But many of the mines are 
situated at considerable distances from the nearest hospital or dispensary, 
and an extension of medical facilities, which might be secured by 
co-operation between employers, is necessary. 
Sait Mines. 
Some 1,600 persons are employed in the rock salt mines of the 
Punjab. The mines are owned by the Government of India and 
worked by the Salt Department. In the most important, the Mayo Mine 
at Khewra, salt is extracted from great chambers in thick seams of 
almost pure salt, which is cut or blasted from the floor of the chamber, 
conveyed to a loading station on the haulage road and there loaded into 
tubs. In some cases this involves women carrying salt in baskets for a 
considerable distance up and down steep inclines in which rough steps 
are cut. The chambers are connected by underground haulage worked by 
steam locomotives. The output of salt is limited only by the demand, 
which is at present insufficient to keep all the workers employed. 
As these men are hereditary miners, entirely dependent on the mine for 
their livelihood, and have no alternative occupation available, the result 
is a serious degree of under-employment, accentuated by the importation 
of ticket-of-leave men for loading work at the railway siding. We were 
informed that the miners were not prepared to undertake this work 
at the rate offered by the management. We recommend that this 
matter be re-examined with the object of offering this work to the mine 
workers and members of the resident community. There was no system 
of checking the workers who enter the mine or the hours worked. We re- 
commend that an effective check be instituted and that, when a proper 
register of the workers is available, new workers be prohibited from enter- 
ing the mine in excess of the numbers necessary to produce the required 
output. Measures for the relief of under-employment would be facilitated 
if means were available for effective consultation between the 
management and the workers. The present body of four lambar- 
dars, nominated by the manager, is in our opinion ineffective for 
the representation of the workers and should be replaced by an elected 
committee. 
Health and Sanitation at Khewra. 
During our visit to Khewra, we were struck by the poor health of 
the miners and their families. Anzemia is prevalent, and it appears from a 
report made by Col. Gill, Director of Public Health in the Puniab. in 1922.