RECRUITMENT FOR ASSAM, 371. 
approved by the local Government or by such authority as it may appoint. 
The aim should be to require the industry itself to take adequate mea- 
sures for the prevention of abuses. This responsibility can be best dis- 
charged by proper organisation for the provision and maintenance of 
satisfactory depts in the recruiting areas and on the journey. Hitherto 
the arrangements for registration and transit have been largely in the 
hands of one organisation which claims 93%, of the present recruitment 
for Assam. A number of gardens, mostly Indian-owned, are not members 
of this organisation nor have they been organised for recruiting purposes. 
The dangers of unorganised recruiting are obvious and it is essential 
that collective arrangements should be made, if the industry is to dis- 
charge its responsibility. If it is not found possible for this to be done 
through one organisation, we see no objection to suitable groups of 
planters forming themselves into organisations for this purpose. Each 
group able to satisfy Government that it could collectively fulfil the obli- 
gations of the law should be entitled to set up its own depéts and to 
place local agents in charge of them. The agent should be required to 
maintain registers of recruits in the prescribed form. The rules in force 
should also make provision for the detention of women and minors for a 
limited period, and the law should prohibit the forwarding of minors who 
are unaccompanied by a parent or guardian. The dept and its registers 
should be open to the inspection of any officers appointed by the pro- 
vincial Government for this purpose. From the stage when the emigrant 
is moved from the depdt, the rules should be made by the Government 
of India, who should make provision for the following of certain pre- 
scribed routes to Assam and for the maintenance, at necessary inter- 
vals, of depots where the emigrants can rest, be fed and, if necessary, 
be examined. 
Possibility of Removing Control. 
So long as organised recruiting is required, it will be necessary 
for the industry to maintain their forwarding agencies, but the aim should 
be to reach a stage where all restrictions on forwarding can be removed, 
thus giving the Assam tea industry the complete liberty which is enjoyed 
by all other industries in India. Further, while we are satisfied that this 
stage has not been reached everywhere, we think that in respect of some 
recruiting areas it may be possible to remove all restrictions at once. 
Areas mainly inhabited by aboriginals do not stand on the same footing 
as other recruiting areas. The most serious abuses in the past occurred in 
connection with the recruiting of aboriginals, and it is there that control 
is likely to be required longest. As regards other areas, it is significant that 
from North Bihar and the United Provinces large numbers of persons are 
recruited every year by contractors, without control, for work in other pro- 
vinces and in Assam itself, where they are engaged mainly on earth-work, 
and we had no evidence to suggest that any control was required in con- 
Dection with such recruitment. Further, certain proposals which we 
make later in connection with repatriation and the liberty of the labourer 
should, if adopted, effect a transformation in the position with regard to 
recruitment. As soon as the fresh recruit going to Assam is assured of the 
Ing