SUPPLY OF LABOUR IN INDIA

A look at the industrial map of India will show that there are certain states/areas, which in spite of large concentration of industrial units suffer from labour deficiency; where as there are industrially depressed states/areas where a large surplus labour force is available. It is from these depressed areas that labour often migrates to the industrial centers. In course of a study , Dr. Lokananathan has pointed out , “dibrugarh and tea plantations in Assam; Howrah-Burdwan industrial belt in West Bengal; Jamshedpur-Hirapur iron industry zone and the coal belt in Bihar and contiguous M.P region ;

1. Kanpur, Meerut, and Saharanpur business- cum industrial region in Bombay- Surat- Baroda and Ahmadabad belt, and Bombay-Thane-Pune region; Wardha-Nagpur belt in Maharashtra; Indore-Gwalior region in Madhya Pradesh. Madras-Coimbatore region of Tamil Nadu and Mysore-Bangalore region in Karnataka is highly industrialized region where there exists an acute deficit of labour”. He further observed, “ Every state has its depressed regions , Garo and Cachar hills in Meghalaya and Assam, Midnapur in Bengal ; South Bihar and Chhota Nagpur plateau in Bihar ; Eastern regions of Uttar Pradesh .

1. Kangra and Mahindergarh districts in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana respectively; Barmer in Rajasthan; Balaghat in M.P; Panchamahal in Gujarat; Ratnagiri and southern regions in Maharastra ; Rayalaseema in Andhra Pradesh; north Arcot in Tamilnadu; and coorg in Karnataka. The first type of areas are characterized by a high production of non-agricultural labour, more industries and, therefore, high industrial and agricultural wages. On the other hand, in the latter areas the proportion of non-agricultural is low, they are less industrialized and, therefore, agricultural and industrial wages are low.

1. Regarding the supply of labour to industrial centers in the initial stages of industrial development the Royal Commission of Labour had remarked that. Small centers everywhere draw on the surrounding rural areas for all the workers they require, expect the labour demanding special skills. The only centers which have reached the stages o f dying compelled to go far a field for the bulk of their labour are Jamshedpur and two big industrial areas of Bombay and Hooghly. While in the West, factory workers are drawn mainly from amongst persons brought up in the towns and partly from amongst those who have abandoned the villages for towns.

1. The recruit to industry continued to regard as his home the place from which he came. The last observation was also supported by the Indian Labour Year Book 1960, which said,”Most of the industrial workers in India are usually migrants to industrial areas who continue to keep in touch with their place of origin. Bulk of them, however, have little stake in agriculture and their seasonal visits to their homes are more for social than for economic reasons.’’ The picture has now somewhat changed. Most industrial areas get their labour supply from three main sources. Mines, plantations and constructions work in tribal areas get their labour force from distant tribal areas.

1. Industries get their labour supply from the nearby areas and from the settled class in the cities. Some areas get labour from inter-State and some from long distances as in Assam tea plantations; Ahmadabad, Bombay and Calcutta centers. It is worth nothing that only in seasonal industries, dealing largely with agricultural products and in mines, there is a substantial class directly interested in agriculture. In regular factory industries, the employer has long passes the stage of being compelled to employ only those workers who are prepared to work for a few months and go back to the village, at the time of harvesting or saving the crop.

1. As the Royal Commission on Labour has put it “with some, the contact is close, with others it is slender or spasmodic and with a few it is more an inspiration than a reality. “Over the last 30 years, with the development of organized factory industries, a large permanent industrial population has stabilized in the urban areas, Positive measures undertaken in the interest of industrial labour by the employers and the government – such as a decent wage, good housing accommodation, transport facilities and provision for future in the form of various social security benefits.

1. In the words of the National commission on labour,” a worker today is far more urban in taste and out look than his predecessor.” The Commission has further observed,” A vast majority of the workers in the cities are committed to factory jobs. In older industries, a second or even third generation workers have emerged. A self-generating working class with roots in the industrial environment in which is born and bred is growing in strength.” About 41.2% of total numbers of industrial workers in India in 1980 were employed in the states of West Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat and 64.4% in the 6 states of Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, U.P., Tamil Nadu and Bihar.

1. Maharashtra and Gujarat are the most important industrial states. they have cotton gins, presses and mills providing employment to about 2/3 of the men and over 4/5 of the women engaged in as industrial workers in these states .More than half of these are employed in Bombay and the rest in the mills of Ahmadabad, Nagpur, Surat, Nadiad, Kolhapur and Sholapur and in the gins and presses located in the cotton producing districts such as Khandesh, Bharuch, Surat and Dharwar. A large part of the workers come from with in the states but the rest are in migrants from U.P and M.P, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Sholapur.

1. West Bengal is the large industrial state. It has large number of organized industries, viz., jute presses and factories situated along the river Hoogly in vicinity of Calcutta and giving employment to nearly half of the men and more than ¼ of the women engaged as industrial workers in the states. There are factories , metal industries and railway workshops and flour mills , brick and tile factories , printing presses potteries , chemicals, paper, iron and steel etc located in Calcutta and neighboring areas .The workers belong to the state itself but the majority of the workers are immigrants in West Bengal, namely in Bihar, Orissa and eastern districts of U.P.

1. The poor agriculturists consisting from Nepal and Chhota Nagpur plateau in the tea gardens of Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Cooch Behar and the last consisting of immigrants from northern Bengal. Santhal Parganas and Assam into Birbhum, Malda and West Dinajpur, In U.P the demand for industrial labour is less than in the state of west Bengal, Maharastra and Gujarat. Because of the lack of the industrial development to the extent. In the state, the most industrial centers are Kanpur, Lucknow , Allahabad , Ferozabad, Modinagar, Varanasi, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Agra , Saranapur, Moradabad etc. The labourers are mostly are Mohammedans and charmars .

1. The states of Bihar and Orissa stand 5th and 6th as regards the industrial development. They have mica, iron and manganese mining industries. Most of the labour is local and small portion supplied by Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. In the iron and steel industry of Jamshedpur, Roukela and Bokaro the labour supply mainly comes from M.P and West Bengal and U.P. In Tamil Nadu, there are Textriles and allied industries besides leather, chemicals, potteries, hand and powerlooms, handicraft industries , cotton gins and presses are situated and Bellary, Ramanathapuram, Ciombatore and cotton spinning and weaving factories at Madras, Madhuras, etc.

In Assam there is tea industry, petro-chemicals, fertilizers and oil refining units; the labour for this is attracted from Chhota Nagpur, Bihar, U.P, M.P and Tamil Nadu. The plantations are situated in the districts of Cachar, Darrang, Sibsagar and Lakhimpur. Bulk of these has now been permanently settled. In kerala, rubber and coffe estates as well as cashew processing, coir manufacture, fertililers, petro chemicals, oil refining and ship building industries get most of their labour supply from Tamil Nadu. In breef “The small and medium size industrial centers depend up on the surrounding rural areas for the supply of all unskilled labour.

Big industrial cities like Bombay, Calcutta, and Jamshedpur, on the other hand , draw their from wider field.In the jute mill industry of Calcutta more than 80% of the workers belong to Bihar, U.P., Orissa and Andhra Pradesh . In the cotton mill industry in Bombay is not only drawn from the neghbouring districts of Konkan, Ratnagiri, Kolaba and other districts but also from Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Punjab and U.P. Labour in engineering industry at Jamshedpur is drawn from Bihar , Orissa, West-Bengal, Madhya-pradesh, Punjab and Tamil Nadu is now more or less permanently settled at the place of work.

The workers from Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, U.P., and Rajasthan, go to Delhi during the agricultural slack season to work in the textile and engineering industries and also in the building trades. There usually some interstate migration between U.P and Bihar for employment in sugar factories.