Page:Labour in Madras.djvu/214

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188
LABOUR IN MADRAS


ventilation in the mills” (p. 18). Doctor Chavan, a medical man of Ratnagiri, the district from which a large number of mill operatives come to Bombay, and one who has a large practice among them, is of opinion that "the mill operatives suffer to a very large extent from phthisis and dyspepsia” (p. 87), The hovels in which they are compelled to live, the malnutrition which follows on low earnings, the premature exhaustion caused by long hours necessitate extraordinary sanitary facilities; but the Government of India are very backward in the matter of sanitation, and the necessity of special factory sanitation has not yet occurred to them. The recently published Indian Industrial Commission Report includes among its contents a paper on “Industrial Development and Public Health" by the Sanitary Commissioner with the Governmenment of India, in which the expert says that "the subject of industrial hygiene has received remarkably little attention in India, until quite recent times and to-day its importance is not fully recognised in any part of the country”. (Appendix I., p. 159). EDUCATION. Much has been said of the illiteracy of the Indian labourer. It is true that the average Indian labourer is not able to read or write. He and his educated coun: trymen have for many years demanded that primary education should be made free and compulsory, but the Government of India have failed to respond to that demand. In fact one of the strongest arguments for the universal demand in India for Home Rule is the extremely backward educational policy of the present in• efficient administration. However, it must be noted that