Labour Legislations

As in the early stages of industrial revolution in Europe, the working conditions in factories and plantations in the nineteenth-century India were miserable. Working hours were long—for women and children as well as for men—and wages were low. In overcrowded, poorly ventilated and poorly lighted working places, the safety measures were practically non-existent.

Ironically, the first-ever demand for regulation of the condition of workers in factories in India came from the Lancashire textile capitalist lobby. Apprehending the emergence of a competitive rival in the Indian textile industry under conditions of cheap and unregulated labour, they demanded the appointment of a commission for investigation into factory conditions. The first commission was appointed in 1875 although the first Factory Act was not passed before 1881.

The Indian Factory Act, 1881 dealt primarily with the problem of child labour (between 7 and 12 years of age). Its significant provisions were:

● employment of children under 7 years of age prohibited,

● working hours restricted to 9 hours per day for children,

● children to get four holidays in a month,

● hazardous machinery to be properly fenced off. The Indian Factory Act, 1891

● increased the minimum age (from 7 to 9 years) and the maximum (from 12 to 14 years) for children,

● reduced maximum working hours for children to 7 hours a day,

● fixed maximum working hours for women at 11 hours per day with an one-and-a-half hour interval (working hours for men were left unregulated),

● provided weekly holiday for all.

But these laws did not apply to British-owned tea and coffee plantations where the labour was exploited ruthlessly and treated like slaves. The Government helped these planters by passing laws such as those which made it virtually impossible for a labourer to refuse to work once a contract was entered into. A breach of contract was a criminal offence, with a planter having the right to get the defaulting labourer arrested.

Views

I am sorry to hear of the increasing friction between the Hindus and Mohammedans in the north-west and the Punjab. One hardly knows what to wish, for unity of ideas and action could be very dangerous politically; divergence of ideas and collision are administratively troublesome. Of the two, the latter is least risky, though it throws anxiety and responsibility upon those on the spot where the friction exists.

Hamilton (Secretary of State, 1897)

The English were an imperial race, we were told, with God-given right to govern us and keep us in subjection; if we protested, we were reminded of the tiger qualities of an imperial race.

Jawaharlal Nehru

More labour laws were passed under nationalist pressures in the twentieth century but the overall working conditions remained deplorable as ever.