THE INCOME OF THE INDUSTRIAL WORKER. 205 
Unfortunately reliable figures of family earnings are more scarce than 
those of individuals. A family budget enquiry at Bombay, which covered 
well over 2,000 families, gave the average monthly income per family at 
Rs. 52/4/6, but this was made in 1921 when prices and incomes were both 
higher than in recent years. Family budget enquiries in Ahmedabad and 
Sholapur, each embracing about 900 families, gave the following re- 
sults —— 
Families earning, 
Below Rs. 20 .. .. 
Rs. 20 and below Rs, 30 
Rs. 30 and below Rs. 40 
Rs. 40 and below Rs. 50 
R8. 50 and below Rs. 60 
Rs. 60 and below Rs. 70 
Rs. 70 and below Rs. 80 
Rs. 80 and below Re 90 
Ahmedabad (1926). 
Percentaoes. 
Average num- 
ber of work. 
ers in fa. 
ily. 
Sholapur (1925), 
Percentages. 
Average num. 
ber of worlk- 
ers in fg- 
mily, 
23 
a 
1-0 
1.6 
9 
2.0 
14 
3.0 
2-7 
2.9 
The budgets in Ahmedabad related mainly to cotton mill work- 
ers, and in Sholapur the enquiry was entirely restricted to such workers, 
Blsewhere figures of equal value are not available, and we are able to give 
only approximate estimates. In Nagpur the results of two separate en- 
quiries indicate that the average family income is in the neighbourhood 
of Rs. 30. The standard is almost certainly higher in Berar and lower 
In other parts of the Central Provinces. In the United Provinces investi- 
gations made for us in Cawnpore, Lucknow and Gorakhpur each show that 
the great maj ority of families receive not more than Rs. 30 a month. The 
level is probably higher in Cawnpore than in other centres, but even here 
we doubt if, among the rank and file of industrial workers, the average 
family earnings exceed Rs. 25 per month. Except in the coalfields, the 
family earnings of workers in organised industry in Bengal and Bihar and 
Orissa probably exceed Rs. 30 on the average and in the more important 
centres in the Punjab are distinctly over Rs. 35. Although wages of indivi- 
duals in this province are comparable with those in Bombay, family earn- 
ings are almost certainly lower on account of the much smalier em- 
ployment of women. So far ag unskilled workers are concerned, we believe 
that, broadly speaking, they cannot, maintain families of average size on 
their income unless there is more than one wage-earner in the family. 
With most of the other workers the degree of comfort is dependent on the 
aumber who bring in money to the home. Marriage at a comparatively 
young age is almost universal, and the claims of children begin at an 
early stage in the average worker’s industrial life. It is quite impossible 
for us to attempt a statement of the composition of the workers’ families, 
and this is essential for any accurate measurement of the standard of 
somfort;,