LABOUR IN MADRAS 231 Have many efforts been made in the Provincial Councils on the part of Indian members to get ameliorative legislation from the Government ?...Not many as far as Madras is concerned : and that again is because there is no representative of the labourers in the Provincial Legislatures as at present constituted. So that you would admit that these subjects, becoming transferred subjects, would be incomplete in what you would like to see them realise, unless coupled with them was a worker's electorate ?...That would be the first factor I would put forward. But even supposing that nothing is done to enfranchise the factory labourer, if No. 25 of the subjects is transferred instead of being kept reserved, the Indian minister will have to deal with the subject and he will be able to d al with it better than the official executive. That is my view, especially as No. 24, which is the development of industries, including industrial research and technical education is to be transferred. That is going to be a transferred subject and the legislation regarding the welfare of labour and regarding other things connected with the factory is kept a reserved subject, and my contention is that both should be transferred. MR. ACLAND I forget for the moment the numbers that you told us belonged to your Unions, ?... Roughly, 20.000, of the five Unions. Can you tell us what proportion of those are literate? ... Literate in the sense of reading and writing ? Yes ?... I think on the whole, perhaps, you will find a few hundreds who can read or write. Is that proportion increasing or tending to incrase ?
