116 
OHAPTER VIII. 
Raniganj than in the Jharia field. Other aboriginal workers live at 
varying distances from the coalfields. Some inhabit villages in the neigh- 
bourhood and walk into the coalfields to live and work there for varying 
periods. Thus some return to their villages at least once a week, whilst 
others return for comparatively long periods when agricultural work 
is plentiful. Wherever their permanent home may lie, nearly all the 
aboriginal workers are also agriculturalists and spend a considerable part 
of their working hours in every year in agriculture. The non- 
aboriginal workers form an increasing minority of the labour force. 
They are drawn mainly from Bihar, the north-east of the Central Provinces 
and the east of the United Provinces and are known as C, P* miners, 
Possessed of greater adaptability than the aboriginals, they are accus- 
tomed to the use of explosives, can be employed on coal-cutting machines, 
and are more assiduous and regular workers. The introduction of more 
modern methods of mining and the tendency to more systematisation 
of working hours give this type of worker an increasing advantage 
over aboriginal labour. While nearly all these men look to other parts 
of India as their “home ” and have some connection with agricultural 
land there, they are not usually agriculturalists in the same sense as the 
aboriginals. They approximate more nearly to perennial factory workers 
and may properly be regarded as miners dependent on mining for their 
livelihood. 
Recruitment of Labour. 
We have observed that, for the most part, perennial factories 
have now passed the stage at which it is necessary to go beyond the factory 
gate to secure labour. Conditions in the coalfields, however, are very 
different. Although, in respect of the demand for labour, the position 
has become easier in recent years, many of the workers have still 
to be engaged away from the colliery. In consequence colliery proprietors 
still find it necessary to spend, directly or indirectly, substantial sums 
in recruiting. Most collieries recruit through a contractor. Some make 
a special contract for the supply of labour, which is then employed and 
paid by the mine management ; but the more usual method is to employ 
a Talsing contractor to whom are assigned other important functions 
which we discuss later. Two other systems exist : under one, a miner 
sardar brings a gang to the mine and is responsible to the manager for the 
work undertaken by the gang ; under the other, the management sends 
out its own recruiters. Whichever the system adopted, the actual procedure 
of securing recruits is much the same. The recruiter or his agent visits 
the village—which is generally the one with which he has a steady 
connection—makes advances, pays railway fares and brings the workers 
to the coalfield. An increasing number of miners find their way to the 
coalfields from outside without the assistance of g recruiter. This class 
includes some of those who come from farthest away, e.g., from the United 
Provinces. These workers frequently return year after year to the same 
mine. 
—————— i — —_ . rei mittee ——— 
* The letters are not an abbreviation of “ Central Provinces” in this case, but 
denote Compressed Pellets »* a commonly used form of gunpowder.