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CHAPTER XIII. 
recommend, therefore, that besetting an industrial establishment for 
the recovery of debts be made a criminal and cognisable offence. Beset- 
ting might be defined as loitering within the precincts or near or within 
sight of any gate or outlet of the establishment. This should go far to 
cripple the activities of a class of money-lender already generally regarded 
as a pest to society. It should also bring to an end the still more deplor- 
able practice of some employers who permit the money-lender to enter 
the factory compound and to collect his dues before the workers’ wages 
reach their hands. 
Recruiting Advances. 
We have had in view hitherto the protection of the worker from 
the temptation to incur substantial and unproductive debts. We deal in 
conclusion with certain features associated with important sections of 
Indian industry which, while not responsible for the bulk of indebtedness, 
tend to enhance the burden on a number of workers. The first of these is 
the practice of making the worker pay for the cost of his own recruit- 
ment. An advance is paid by the employer or his agent partly as an 
inducement to enter employment, partly to cover the actual travelling 
expenses and partly, in some cases, to secure a hold over the worker after 
he has been recruited. This practice is very rare among factory owners, 
but it is common elsewhere, especially where labour is engaged through 
contractors. The result is to saddle the worker with an additional burden 
of debt at the outset of his industrial career, if not on each occasion when 
necessity drives him back from the village to industry. We consider 
that if an employer or his agent finds it necessary to advance travelling 
expenses to secure labour, he should pay these himself. The practice 
of giving an advance in addition to travelling expenses is one that lends 
itself to abuse ; few workers can resist the prospect of cash in hand, which 
is often unwisely spent and which may secure their being bound to serve an 
employer under hard conditions. We recommend, therefore, that the 
recovery of any amount advanced to meet the expenses of recruitment of 
labour should be illegal, and that, so far as other advances are concerned, 
no amount advanced before actual employment begins should be recover- 
able except from the first wage payment. This will not preclude an em- 
ployer or his agent advancing the first wage that the employee will earn, but 
it will make it possible for the employee to start on his second wage period 
unencumbered by debt to his employer. In those establishments to which 
our proposals relating to the control of deductions are applied, the 
deduction of advances other than those which we have treated as 
legitimate can be dealt with by the law which we have recommended 
in the preceding chapter. Elsewhere. illegal advances will merely be 
irrecoverable at law. 
Periods of Wage Payment. 
The other feature which adds to the embarrassment of the work- 
ers in many centres is the comparatively long period in respect of which 
wages are paid. and the delay which is apt to occur in their payment. 
The most usual period of payment in oreanised industry is the month.