Page:Labour in Madras.djvu/228

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LABOUR IN MADRAS


economic conditions and the great rise in prices have been the main causes of this unrest. The forces let loose by the War and the Russian Revolution have to a certain extent widened and coloured the political outlook of the Indian labourer. For many weary years his patience has been heavily taxed, and he has been on the look-out for means to improve his lot. Excessive hours, low wages, premature exhaustion due to malnutrition, lack of education for himself and his children, absence of any housing arrangements, and of general sanitary conditions, and the prevalence of apathy on the part of the authorities and the employers have made the Indian labourer restless. The Indian Factories Act was passed in 1881 ; during nearly 40 years twice only has that Act been amended. In September, 1890, an Indian Factory Commission was appointed, and again in 1908 the Indian Labour Commission went round. The reports of these Commissions led to the amending of the Factory Act, and the last occasion on which this was done was in 1911. The law now obtains as it was amended in 1911. This law enables an employer to engage labourers for 12 hours per day on six days in the week-2, e., 72 hours per week. Women are allowed be employed for 11 hours per day. Young persons-i.e., boys and girls of 9 to 14 years of age-are employed for six hours per day ; generally two shifts are used in textile factories. The long day of 12 hours has the ridiculously small break of 30 minutes in the middle of it. This 12-hour day lengthens into 13 or 14, or even more, as was recently pointed out by an able Indian Civil Servant: “From the standpoint of the worker, the ti me taken in going to and returning from the factory