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CHAPTER XI, 
recommend that, in all cases where contractors are employed by the 
Public Works Department, the contract should contain definite provisions 
regarding the wages to be paid. We do not think that the method 
adopted elsewhere of a fair wages clause ” can be applied without mo- 
difications in India, and in its place we suggest that the actual wages to 
be paid for different kinds of work should be specified in the contract. 
If it were necessary to make contracts for the supply of labour over a 
long term, provision could be made for the revision of the rates of wages 
from time to time and for corresponding additions to, or reductions from 
the rates payable to the contractors. We also recommend that con- 
tracts should stipulate the age below which persons should not be em- 
ployed and this should in no case be less than 12 years. Mr Cliff, 
Mr Joshi, Diwan Chaman Lall and Miss Power, however, are of opinion 
that this work is comparable to that undertaken by children in and 
about mines, and on docks, and that the minimum age of employment 
should be 14 years. 
Health on Public Works. 
So far as housing and sanitation are concerned, the practice 
appears to vary. In some cases contractors are required to take measures 
regarding sanitation and health and housing ; but this is not always the 
case, even on large works where much labour is brought from a distance ; 
nor does Government undertake to house contractors’ labour. Further, 
it does not appear to be the regular practice to consult the medical and 
public health departments before large engineering works are started, or 
to secure their co-operation during the progress of the schemes. Too 
often the determination of the scale of medical and public health activity 
is left to the public works authorities, and the engineer in charge of the 
construction is made responsible for the control of health on the work. 
In some provinces the rules do not appear to require previous consulta- 
tion with the Department of Public Health. In more than one case an 
important work has been started without any such reference, and occasion- 
ally a big work has been carried on for some time without any control being 
exercised by the medical or public health authorities over the health 
arrangements. The results, as our evidence shows, have not been satis- 
factory. We recommend that, where large construction works ate to be 
carried out either by the Public Works Department itself or through the 
agency of contractors, and especially where workers are to be employed 
for any length of time in the same area, the Medical and Public Health 
Departments should be consulted beforehand. In addition, definite 
rules should be framed in all such cases regarding the supply of proper 
housing and sanitary arrangements for all persons employed and pro- 
viding for the treatment of cases of sickness or accident, including accom- 
modation for cases of infectious disease. We also recommend that the 
Medical Department should be entrusted with responsibility for the health 
of those employed on such works. 
Direct Employment. 
Experiments in departmental working on a large scale appear 
to have been rare, but we have been given particulars of the results