30 
CHAPTER XXIV, 
Labour Bureau for Bengal. 
The more extensive investigations which are necessary are, in 
our view, the task of Government. The possible expansion here is very 
great, but the available resources, at the present juncture especially, are 
uot large ; we therefore recommend only the action most urgently re- 
quired. We hope that, with the return of easier conditions, the great 
importance of economic enquiry will be better appreciated, and that there 
will be a big and early advancein the most useful directions. The first 
requirement is a labour statistical office in Bengal. This is the chief indus- 
brial province and includes a greater variety of important branches 
of industry than any other province. With its great textile industry, 
its engineering and railway development, its coal mines and plantations, 
its shipping and inland transport and a host of other activities, it forms 
a dominating and representative section of Indian industrial enterprise, 
and in this direction India is entitled to look to it for a lead. But hither- 
to, at any rate so far as Government is concerned, it has done practically 
a0thing by way of statistical investigation into the conditions of the labour 
which contributes much of its wealth. We recommend the establish- 
ment of labour statistical machinery on a scale not smaller than that 
represented by the Bombay Labour Office. The annual cost of this 
office is in the neighbourhood of Rs. 80,000 ; similar services might 
possibly be secured in Bengal at a slightly lower figure. The office 
would start with the advantage of the experience gained in Bombay, 
which in its early years was necessarily hampered by the fact that it was 
doing pioneer work, 
Investigations in other Provinces. 
In other important industrial provinces we should like to 
see offices of a similar character, but we doubt if this is possible 
in present circumstances. We recommend, therefore, for the present, 
the setting up of thorough enquiries into family budgets in Delhi, 
Madras, Cawnpore, Jamshedpur and a centre in the Jharia coalfield. 
Some work has been done in nearly all these centres, and cost of 
living indices are regularly published for the Bihar and Orissa centres. 
But these do not appear to rest on any adequate statistical basis, 
and in any case no reliable information regarding the standard 
of living is available to the public. The construction of reliable 
cost of living indices, which should be one result of the enquiries we 
advocate, would be of the greatest assistance to employers and Govern- 
ment in the provinces concerned. In Burma, Rangoon will probably 
offer a sufficient field for the Labour Statistics Bureau for some time, 
but we would like to see an extension to the main oilfields as soon as 
circumstances permit. In the Punjab, we recommend that assistance 
be given by Government to the Board of Economic Enquiry to enable 
it to institute and direct investigations in the industrial field. The 
possibility of establishing a similar Board in the Central Provinces 
should be investigated.