52 
. CHAPTER 1V, 
where the practice was formerly prevalent, but similar action does not 
appear to have been taken in the Bengal jute mills, where certifying 
surgeons report the existence of a similar abuse. We recommend that 
special and continuous attention should be given to this matter by the 
local Government and its officers. Persons who are 15 years or over are 
treated as adults. Recent years have seen a tendency to employ fewer 
children, and child labour has been replaced by adult labour and particular- 
ly women’s labour. The proportion of women employed in factories to the 
total number of operatives has risen, as that of children has fallen ; 
the latter is now below 4 per cent. For reasons we have already given 
and because many children do not come to the industrial areas till full- 
time work is available for them, we regard this as a commendable tendency. 
Children’s Ages and Hours. 
Children are almost universally employed on a half-time basis, 
and the reduction of adult hours will remove any objection to the reduction 
of children’s hours to a maximum of 5 daily. In factories working 
adults a 9 hour day, 4% will be the most suitable hours for children. We 
have considered the possibility of reducing children’s hours to a lower 
level than 5 daily, but we do not recomend this step, as any further 
substantial limitation, which would prevent the employment of children 
on half-time work, would probably lead to their complete elimination in 
most cases. While we have no desire to encourage the employment of 
children, we doubt if the extent of their present employment goes much 
beyond the provision of jobs for those who would live in the industrial 
areas in any case. Along with the question of hours, we have considered 
the suitability of the present limits of age for children, namely 12 and 15 
years, and have decided to recommend no change. We do not regard a 4% 
or 5 hour day, on work of the character which children are generally re- 
quired to do, as excessive for children of these ages, provided always 
that the existing law which requires that the child should be medically 
certified as fit for such employment, is strictly enforced. 
A Minority View. 
Mr Cliff, Mr Joshi, Diwan Chaman Lall and Miss Power 
dissent from this view and are of the opinion that the minimum age of 
employment in factories coming under the Factories Act should be 
raised forthwith to 13 years, and that five years thereafter Government 
should reconsider the position with a view to bringing the age into 
conformity with the standard laid down in Article IT of the International 
Convention dealing with the minimum age for admission of children 
into industrial employment. In Article VI of that Convention, which 
came into force in June 1921, special provision was made in the case of 
India, allowing for a minimum age of 12 years. They hold that the 
intervening ten years has given both the community and organised 
industry, with which we are concerned in this chapter, a reasonable 
period in which to become adjusted to a higher minimum age standard. 
In no part of India did the physique of the children working in regulated 
factories appear to them to be of a standard higher than that of Western 
children of similar age or to be such as would justify the continued