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CHAPTER XX.—RECRUITMENT FOR ASSAM.
Scarcity of Labour.
From the point of view of the employer, the outstanding preblem
 during the whole history of tea planting in Assam has been the scarcity
 of labour. Where the bulk of the tea gardens stand to-day was,
seventy years ago, uncultivated and nearly uninhabited jungle, and for the
expansion of the industry it has been necessary continuously to import
fresh labour. The Surma valley was able to secure a certain amount of labour
 either locally or from adjoining districts in Bengal. But in the Assam
valley the supply of local labour was negligible, and it was found impossible
 to obtain supplies from areas nearer than Chota Nagpur and Bihar.
When it is remembered that, for many years, the only way of reaching
the tea districts of this valley was by a steamer journey of several days
up the Brahmaputra and an emigrant had to undertake a long railway
journey in addition, the difficulties confronting the early planters will
be realised. Even to-day, when it is possible to go by rail from any province
 right up to the head of the valley, most emigrants spend at least a
week, and some spend much more, on the journey. At present the most
important recruiting area for both valleys is Chota Nagpur and the
Santal Parganas, whose aboriginal population is preferred for work
on the tea gardens, but substantial numbers are brought from Bihar and
Orissa, the United Provinces, the northern districts of Madras and the
eastern and northern districts of the Central Provinces, while recruiting
 has been carried on as far away as Bombay.
This factor of distance and inaccessibility has made recruiting
expensive, and it is this expense that has been responsible for many
of the troubles associated with the supply of labour to Assam. Prior
to the war there were few periods when a labourer could be imported at
a cost of less than Rs. 200 ; at times Rs. 500 and even higher sums
were paid to secure a single labourer. To-day the cost, as deduced
from statements made to us by witnesses, may be estimated as varying
normally between Rs. 120 and Rs. 200, and as being generally in the
neighbourhood of Rs. 150%. As we shall show later, these sums are
inflated by factors other than the mere cost of travel. These factors
owe their existence indirectly to the fact that, even without them, recruiting
 could not be carried on cheaply. For this fact made it of the
utmost importance that an employer recruiting a labourer should actually
 secure labour from him. An employer who was willing to spend
even Rs. 100 in importing a labourer could not afford to do so if that
labourer, shortly after reaching the garden, was to pass on to the garden
of a neighbour in return for a small consideration or for other reasons.
The efforts of the planters were therefore directed, almost from the first,
towards ensuring that, if a man was recruited to work on'a particular
garden, he actually worked there and not elsewhere.

q *Labourers recruited for one year or shorter terms can be recruited at a lower
oure.