Unit : 1 Growth of Industrial Labour Force

[BCom Sem : 4 Theory and Practice of Industrial Relations]

Causative Factors Responsible for Growth of Industrial Labour Force

The Indian Working Class has had a somewhat different historical origin than
that of its com peers in most Western industrialized countries. There, the origin
of the industrial class is traced to the town-dwellers, the artisans and other
social groups of the town economy. For example, in England, the Industrial
Revolution was preceded by an agrarian revolution, the disbanding of feudal
retainers, the dissolution of monasteries, enclosure movement, changes in
methods of tillage and the law of primogeniture. These conditions led to heavy
swelling of industrial proletariat, who migrated in large numbers to the
newly-developed industrial centers. This displaced mass of workers was quickly
absorbed in the rapidly expanding industry. The rural affiliations of these
migrants were very rapidly loosened and the children of these city-bred
migrants hardly retained any trace of their peasant stock.

But, in India, the picture was different, though, here too, modern industrialism
was preceded by the rise of the wage-earning class. Yet the mass of workers -
mostly craftsmen and artisans uprooted from their traditional sources of
livelihood had no alternative but to fall back upon agriculture. The transfer of
population from the non-agricultural traditional sector to agriculture, together
with rural perpetuation and impoverishment following an increase ease of
population, fragmentation of land, rack-renting, defective system of land
revenue assessment, and the exploitation of the cultivators by moneylenders
(aided by the new laws of registration and conveyance) led to the creation of a
landless proletariat class, for the first time, in Indian history. With the loss of
common rights in the rural economy, the disuse of collective enterprise, the
multiplication of rent receivers, free mortgaging and transfer of land followed
by decline in cottage industries, the number of this class increased and the age
of hired labour began.' These agricultural labour-intensive and causal-appeared
first on the farms where they offered their labour for full-time or part-lime
employment. In 1882, their number was estimated at 75 lakhs which increased
follow and get link
to 315 lakhs in 1961 to 474 lakhs in 1971, 555 lakhs in 1981to 746 lakhs in 1991.

WhatsApp
In in was made after a long time ago, and
India, the beginning of industrialization
mechanized industry registered a painfully slow rate of growth. Eventually, in
discription
the initial years of industrial development, the displaced rural masses were
absorbed in the construction of roads, railways, and public buildings which were
started under the Public Works Department (FWD) of the Government of India
in the middle years of the nineteenth century. Prior to this, a large number of
Indian workers were sent to the British colonies of South Africa, Mauritius, the
Pacific coast and Some other countries under the system of indentured labour.
But when plantations mines and factories started working, some progress was
made in the sixties and seventies of the last century in the country itself, and
the need for workers was greatly felt. At about this time, the factories in
Bombay experienced a great shortage of labour. The wage-earning class was
comprised of "the Lowest and most unfortunate class of people", who ranked
low in the social hierarchy of the traditional village society. The already severe
economic conditions in the village wakened and, therefore, people were forced
to leave their ancestral homes and seek employment in factory towns, "where
custom was replaced by contract, cooperation by competition, the intimate
village neighbourhood by impersonal relations and anonymity, and the security
provided by the joint family by insecurity and unemployment."

This wage-earning class, though nominally free from the tyranny of village
atoms and social injustice and disabilities was looked down upon in the mill
towns as "jail labour." This created problems arising out of social and economic
maladjustment. Socially, the min problem was related to its status in an
industrial society, economically, it was related to health, housing. hours and
conditions of work, welfare and a number of other problems.

With the growth of industrialization, especially during and after the First World
War, conditions changed. This was reflected in two ways. First, India emerged as
an industrial nation. Second, there was a steady increase in the ranks of landless
laborers, who flocked in large numbers to industrial centers and settled there as
the permanent industrial proletariat.

Regarding the changes that took place in the world of Indian labour, the Rege
Committee observed, "When the Royal Commission on Labour (1934) reported,
the working class of India was neither sufficiently organised nor properly
follow and get link
stabilized. In recent years, there has been a greater concentration of the
working class population in industrial areas, and this has led to the rise of an
WhatsApp in
industrial proletariat in most cities, which is prepared to stick to the town to a
greater extent than before, to fight for its legitimate rights and to seek its
discription
livelihood in urban rather than rural - areas. The workers were not without a
stake in the industry: where the working and living conditions were better, they
did not migrate from place to place, though they still retained their links with
the villages." In the same vein, the National Commission on Labour (1969)
remarked.

"The trend towards the stabilization of industrial labour has been further
strengthened A worker A to day is far more urban in taste and outlook than his
predecessors. The idyllic notion of a village nexus has receded to the
background."

The factors responsible for this change were:

(i) Positive steps undertaken by employers in the interest of industrial labour,

such as incentive payment for regularity and productivity.

(ii) Provision of minimum facilities under various labour enactments and

adoption of various social security measures.

(iii) Creation of a wide variety of jobs-both skilled and unskilled as a result of

planning in which young persons from ubran families sought industrial work.

Sectoral Distribution of Labour Force

The growth of industrial labour force was extremely slow in the initial stages.
The slow and tardy of growth of modern industry combined with inadequate
attention to the problem of human adjustment of workers in industrial towns,
was responsible for the slow growth of the industrial labour force. The
population of the country increased from 236 million in 1891 to 548 million in
1971 and to 681 million in 1981 and shot up to 838 million as per 1991 Census.
The number of workers in 1971 increased from 32 million to 180 million in 1981.
The working population in India in 1985 was 261 million which increased to 314
million in 1991, comprising of 224 million male and 90 million female. In 1991,
the working population (comprising of main and marginal workers) was 37.50
per cent of the total population as against 36.70 per cent in 1981. The growth
follow and get link
rate of population between 1987-94 was 2.43 per cent per annum whereas the
growth rate of workforce was 2.5 per cent and that of employment was 2.2 per
WhatsApp in
cent per annum between 1971 - 91.

discription
With reference to Table 14 and 1.5, it may be noted that the participation rate
of 43 per /cent of the total population recorded in 1961 census, the proportion
of working population (return ed in 1971) came down to 34 per cent) This was
mainly due to the fact that many housewives and students who were treated as
workers on the basis of some very marginal contribution in 1961 had not been
included in the 1971Census as workers. It may also be noted that the ratio of
female workers to the total female population declined considerably in the 1971
Census as a result of stricter definition of the term "worker". In 1961, about 28
per cent of the female were treated as workers in 1971, only 20 per cent were
so counted. This does not compare favourably with female employment in some
of the advanced countries in terms of labour force participation rates Coupled
with low productivity of the average worker, the low participation rate is also
responsible for the poverty of the country to a large extent.

Although the census data on worker participation rates from 2001 are not
comparable and fail to reveal a neat trend, they clearly reflect the
underdeveloped nature of the Indian economy. The main features of India's
work force are:

First, the working population in India is low in comparison to that in developed

countries. This is due to the rapid growth of population, low female
participation in work, under-remuneration and omission of unpaid family
workers.

Secondly, in 1981, the rural worker population ratio (39.4%) was higher than the
urban (4%) rates have gone down to 30.4% whereas the rural worker population
rates registered a small increase to 40.24%. This is quite natural and has always
been so in this country. In agriculture, almost all adult members of the
household participate in work. In urban areas, the situation is quite different.
Because of social inhibitions, there are not many jobs which women can take in
cities.

Thirdly, the female worker participation rate was 19.7% as against male
workers' rate of 52.6% in 1981. It is interesting to note that in 1991,
follow and get link
participation rate of both male and female have gone up, for men it was
reported to be 57.6% whereas in latter case, it was 22.7%.
WhatsApp in
But the difference between male and female worker participation rate is more
discription
than two and a half times higher. This difference is due to social backwardness
in the country. Even now, most of the women undertake productive work only
under economic compulsions; this is the reason why female worker
participation rates are higher for economically underprivileged communities,
such as peasants, artisans and scheduled castes.

It is interesting to note that in the work force participation (see Table 1.4),
women lag behind men in level and quality of employment over the last three
decades; however, the growth rate of employment among women is
appreciably high in comparison to men.

Distribution of Workers by Industrial Category

According to the 1991 census, 66.7 per cent of the working population was
engaged in the primary sector, 12.7 per cent in the secondary sector and 20.5
per cent in the tertiary sector A break-up of the occupational structure of the
rural working population shows that 84.8 percent were dependent on
agriculture and allied activities; 0.6 per cent on mining, manufacture and
household industry; and only 10.2 per cent in trade, commerce and other
services) This highlights. the fact that agriculture still continues to be the
primary occupation of the rural masses and that the programmes of
industrialization have not made much impact on the rural areas. In the urban
sector, however, 54.9 per cent of the population was engaged in the tertiary
sector and only 32.3 per cent found employment in the secondary sector. This
implies that even in the urban sector, the proportion of workers engaged in the
manufacturing industry was less than that in the tertiary sector.

Employment in Factories

Industrial development in the country after the Second World War led to a
phenomenal growth in the size of work force in the country in the organised
sector. The factory labour formed the bulk of this organised labour. Before
discussing the patter of employment of workers in factories, it is desirable to
have an idea of the types of factories we have in our country. Factories have
been divided into two categories, namely,
follow and get link
(a) Regulated factories
WhatsApp
(b) Unregulated factories in
discription
The regulated factories are those factories which are governed by the Factories
Act, 1948. They are any premises, including the precincts therefore, where 10 or
more persons are working, and in part of which power is used for manufacture:
or where power is not used, the number of workers should be 20 or more. Such
factories have been sub-divided into two categories:

(a) Perennial factories

(b) Seasonal factories

In the perennial factories those industries are included which work for the
whole year. Of these, the food products (including beverages) employ the
largest of laborers about one third of the total work force. Next comes the
cotton textile industries claimir-3 about 13 per cent of the total employment.
The other industry groups which account for high employment are machinery,
non-metallic products, basic metal industries, engineering Chigs and
pharmaceutical industries chemical products and metal products, etc. The
labour in all these groups of industries is large because the factories provide
stable, round-the-year and permanent employment.

The seasonal factories are those which, on an average, work for not more than
180 days in a year. Such factories are comparatively small and are scattered
over wide areas, and recruit labour from amongst the agriculturists. These
factories comprise two sub-groups: the first is the cotton-ginning and pressing,
jute pressing, shellac, tea, coffee and rubber factories. This group is
predominantly seasonal. The second sub-group consists of rice mills, oil mills,
sugar mills, tobacco factories, flour mills, tiles and brick factories, ice and
aerated water factories.

Here, a brief discussion of the the employment position of workers in regulated

factories is given in Table 1.7 which reveals the growth of factories and worker
employment therein. In 1892, there were 656 factories employing 3,17,000
workers, in 1918, the number of workers increased to 11,23,000 in 3,436
factories. The registered number of factories went up from 10,466 in 1939 to
30,834 in 1951; to 50,005 in 1961; to 81,078 in 1971; to 1,40,843 in 1980 to
follow and get link
1,99,826 in 1990 and 2,07,533 in 1991. During this period, employment in them
increased from 17.51 lakh to 25.37 lakh and then to 39.28 lakh and finally to
WhatsApp in
50.09 lakh. In 1977, the number of persons employed in factories was 61.63
lakh; in 1981, it was 72.87 lakh. The number of workers employed was 76.90
discription
lakh in 1985 (P) which shot up to 77.94 lakh in 1986. In 1990 there were
1,99,826 factories employing 81.71 lakh workers. Whereas in 1991, the number
of factories increased to 2,07,533 employing 84.94 lakh workers.

This leads us to conclude that every year since 1982, both the number of
factories, and workers employed therein have increased manifold.

Number of Factories and Average Daily Number of Persons

Employed

Table 1.7 indicates that, in 1990, Maharashtra (12.20 lakh) had the largest
number of daily employed factory workers, followed.by West Bengal (9.06 lakh),
Tamil Nadu (8.59 lakh), Gujarat (7.84 lakh) and U.P. (5.71 lakh). This trend was
also evident in earlier periods to which the data pertain.

The industrial labour in factories has not been distributed evenly, Since 1960,
there has been a tendency for the concentration of industries in Maharashtra,
Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. In Maharashtra and
Gujarat are found a large number of cotton. textile mills, engineering and
fertilizer plants, chemicals, petro-chemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals etc. The
Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have cotton textiles, chemicals and jute industries.
The U.P. Has cotton, sugar, cement; chemicals, engineering, machine tool
industries and woolen. mills. This concentration of industrial units has attracted
a large labour force from nearby areas.

After the second plan period, a.clear-cut tendency has been noticeable.
Industrial units have tended to migrate to less developed states, because of the
Balanced Regional Development Policy of the government. The availability of
raw material and local cheap labour supply, as well as the financial and other
incentives provided by the respective state governments, have been responsible
for the dispersal of Industries to these areas. Prior to 1947, India had a network
of railway lines and a humber of plantations, mines, textile, sugar, cement and
paper units, besides three steel plants located at Jamshedpur, Hirapur-Kulti and
Bhadravati; and also a few engineering units. But since then a vast industrial
complex has developed in and around important industrial centers and in the
follow and get link
open surroundings of new areas. Consequently, Assam now has refineries at
Gauhati and Bongaigaon, oil fields at Moran, Hugrijan and Naharkatia, electricity
WhatsApp in
generation and cement plants, engineering units, plywood and fertilizer plants.
In Kerala, besides cashew nut processing plants, coir manufacturing units and
discription
coffee plantations, rare-earth, fertilizer, petro-chemicals, ship-building and
oil-refining plants have come up. Rajasthan has developed chemical and
instrument manufacturing, ball-bearings, engineering, copper and zinc
complexes, synthetic fibres, cement and electromagnetic plants. Andhra
Pradesh has fertilizers, ship-building and manganese, cement, paper and sugar
units; P too, has a number of units producing transport equipment and machine
tools, aeronautic plastics and heavy chemicals, besides leather, cotton textiles,
paper, sugar, cement and aluminium plants Punjab and Haryana manufacture a
large number of products, ranging from hosiery and sports goods to agricultural
implements, cycles, tractors, sewing machines, steel rollings, electric fans and
radio parts.

In the country, the Mumbal-Thane-Belapur-Paner Surat Ankleshwar

Bharuch-Vadodara; Durgapur-Assansol; Ahmedabad-Kaiol; Mysore-Bangalore:
Udaipur-Debari-Dariba-Chittorgarh Bhilwara-Kota; Delhi-Meerut-Ghaziabad;
Aligarh Kanpur, Hyderabad -Secunderabad; and Calcutta Hooghly regions have
become the nuclei of diversified industrial units. All these complexes and
individual centers have pulled quite a sufficient labour force from the
surrounding areas.

Employment in Plantations

The plantations are in important sector of the economy which are highly
labour-intensive, for most of the work is manual. The plantations are generally
of tea, coffee and rubber which together cover about 0.4 percent of the
cropped area and are concentrated mainly in the north east and along the
south-west coast. With the rapid increase in the area under plantation crops,
largely due to the increase in the home consumption of these commodities and
an expanding foreign market, the number of workers has increased. In 1911,
there were 7.4 lakh plantation workers; in 1921, these numbered 10 lakh; 12.2
lakh in 1961 (see Table 1.2). In 1971, the number of plantation-employed was
estimated at 8 lakhs and in 1981, it was 9.0 lakh which shot up to 10.89 lakh in
1990 (Provisional figure). In 1986, 7.91 lakh workers were employed in tea
gardens, 31,000 in coffee and 38,000 in rubber plantations. However, since
follow and get link
1987-90, except in tea plantation in both coffee and rubber plantations, it has
declined considerably. (see Table 1.10)
WhatsApp in
discription
The labour force engaged on plantations represents only the principal earners
and working dependents. If non-working dependents are included, not less than
5 million would constitute the population dependent on the plantation industry.

Employment in Mines

From the employment point of view, mining is an important sector, for the
country is rich in mineral wealth. In India, important mining centers are located
in Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and
Madhya Pradesh. Therefore, quite a large number of migrant workers have
been working in those areas.

Table 1.10 indicates the employment position in mines. It highlights the fact
that there has been a steady increase in the employment of workers in mines. In
1901, the total number of workers-employed in mines was 104.48 thousand,
which increased to 305.24 thousand in 1950 to 652.06 thousand in 1960. In
1976, the given figure was 7,48,000 which inflated to 75,050 in 1988 and 765.39
thousand in 1990.

Characteristics of Indian Labour

With the changing industrial landscape of the country, the growth of new
industrial town ships and the dispersal of activity, a process of "industrial
culturalization" of workers has set in. New working class areas have come into
being and old ones are expanding. In the new areas, adaptability to this culture
depends on the extent and strength of the workers' link with rural areas. Yet
assimilation into the new way of life has not been slow. The National
Commission on Labour has observed: "Our visits have revealed changes in
workers' day-to-day life and these we consider worth recording. Though
somewhat impressionistic and lacking in quantitative precision, they are borne
out by the writings of a cross-section of social observers of the Indian scene as a
whole."

follow and get link

The main characteristics of the Indian labour class may be
stated as below:
WhatsApp in
discription
Social Composition of Industrial Labour

Earlier, the labour force in factories, mines and plantations was generally
provided by the lowest castes, depressed classes and the unfortunates in
society. For example, in coal mines, the largest single group was that of Bauris
of very low social rank from followed by the Santhals. In factories, the workers
were drawn from Dosad, Matharas, Kolis, Julahas, Lunyas, Kunbis, Gonds, i Pasis,
Panchamas, Mochis, Saibbs, Mali, Kumbhars, Dheds, Lohar and many other
scheduled: castes. Now the workers come even from other communities and
castes, such as Brahmins, Rajputs, Baniyas etc.

Though caste and occupation have always interacted and the relations between
the two have been elastic in our society, social mobility today accounts for the
emergence of a mixed workforce. While in traditional industries, this change has
been somewhat slow, it has been mo significant in sophisticated employments
such as engineering and metal trades, oil refining and distribution, chemicals
and petro-chemicals, machine tools and machine building and in synthetics and
many 'white-collar' occupations.

The old social barriers have rapidly broken down. It is no wonder to find the son
/ daughter of a spinner or a weaver working side by side in a chemical
pharmaceutical, or electronic industry with the son / daughter of an earlier
generation of factory workers.

Similarly, the old distaste among the so-called high class people for manual
work is gradually vanishing because the groups themselves have not retained
their separate identity as of old because the jobs are no longer wholly manual.
This change is visible not only in the work-place but also in homes where
earning members have established parity with elders in the family and see and
reciprocate social calls from co-workers in the workplace. Higher skills, better
education and better wage levels have also helped in removing this distinction
between the manual and non manual workers.

In this connection, the views of the First National Commission on Labour are
follow and get link
worth noting "Whatever the reasons, there has developed a greater sense of
equality among workers intersect and also as between the supervisory group,
WhatsApp in
on the one hand, and workers, on the other In fact, the workers in some
industrial townships are getting conscious of the distinction shown between the
discription
workers and other staff in the matter of company transport or medical and
recreational facilities. As more and more workers send their children to school
and colleges, instances where the children of factory workers come out as
engineers, doctors, accountants and teaches are on the increase. All these have
contributed to a kind of social amalgam."

The Sex Composition of Workers

In the earlier stages, male workers predominated the workforce in factories. But
now women workers have increasingly taken to industrial work-both skilled and
semi-skilled. Formerly, they were mostly-confined to plantations and the textile
industry, Now women of middle and upper middle classes are rapidly joining the
workforce-which is obvious from the fact that their participation in workforce
has increased.

Regarding the employment of women, the National Commission on Labour said:

"In some cases, it is the economic compulsion which makes them take to work;
but in several others, it is desire to improve their standard of living and to
posses 'extra' goods that drive both husband and wife to work" Lambert, in his
study, remarks that the legitimacy of male-female proportion.being an indicator
of industrialization is being questioned "because the proportion of women in
the workforce is not entirely, or even primarily, a matter of choice for women or
their families. Even with an abundant supply of women willing to work, it is up
to the employer to hire them or not."

Participation of Women in Socio-economic activities is a common practice in the

developed as well as developing countries of the world. Women are known to
work on farms, roads, buildings and construction besides plantation, factories,
mines and fisheries, skilled women work in manufacturing, pharmaceutical,
electronic, electrical plants. Majority of women work in the unorganized sector
for low wages and at low level of skills. The number of women workers has
increased from 40 million in 1951 to 90 million in 1990. India is a free-runner in
the area of pro women legislation and in dismantling age long social barriers.
Women constitute more than 48 per cent of the population. The right of women
to work and employment in recognized under the Indian Constitution. The
follow and get link
directives in Article 16(1) and 39 grant the right of equal opportunity in regard
to employment of men and women without any distinction.
WhatsApp in
discription
The directives cover three broad characteristics

(i) employment
(ii) equal wage payment
(iii) health and safety.

Emergence of Tribal Labour

The tribal labour has emerged in a sizeable proportion to industrial labour. "The
process which started towards the end of the 19th century with the exploitation
of forest wealth and minerals, like coal, manganese and iron ore, gathered
momentum after Independence with the location of factories in tribal areas, for
families uprooted, as a result of their lands being acquired for developing
industrial complexes were no longer satisfied with the compensation received.
They wanted the younger members to be absorbed in industrial employment.
These tribal youths have adopted themselves to the changed way of life. These
tribal may now be seen working side by side with others in the mining areas,
iron and steel industry and in such unorganized industries as construction and
building etc.

Heterogeneity of Labour Class

The industrial working class has not been a homogeneous class for the reason
that people of different castes, communities, ethnic groups, religious beliefs,
speaking different languages and coming from different regions work in
factories, where everyone finds the other a total stranger. It is difficult for them
to confide in their fellow-workers. The result is that the Indian labour force is
sharply divided between "high-class" and "low class", "skilled" and "unskilled",
"Southerner" and "Northerner", "Hindu" and "Muslim" "Bengali" or "Gujarati".
This artificial division of working class has affected its collective bargaining
capacity. With increased regionalism and parochialism, coupled with strong
political unionism, the problem is becoming the worst than what it was before.
No climate has yet fully developed for what one may call vertical integration, in
follow and get link
which all elements could stand together in a collective bargaining effort to force
improvement in wages and hours and conditions of work. Even a rather good
WhatsApp in
trade union has not proved very effective in dealing with basic economic
problems.

discription
Undifferentiated Class Character

The Indian working class has yet remained undifferentiated as a class because of
the moderate degree of industrialization, the persistence of traditional
attachment to the village and joint family (for whatsoever reason), the caste
and other social institutions, the low wag is and its low composition in the
overall population of the country. With the exception of a few big industrial
centers, where the workers have acquired a substantial degree of stability, have
remained they peasants at heart. Oranti has rightly observed: "Workers in India
do not constitute a wage earning class corresponding to the factory workers of
the Western countries. Employment relations are less clearly defined. One can
speak of an "industrial" and "commercial" labour force dependent upon wages
and employment from others only in a limited number of localities and only for
the most recent past of India's economic history. Indian workers alternate from
being unemployed and available for work to being self-employed in a trade and
not available for hire, to activity on land or in their native village, and then back
to industrial or commercial employment or unemployment.

High Rate of Absenteeism and Labour Turnover

One of the important characteristics of Indian workers is that they are in the
habit of abstaining from work, and have a greater tendency to change their jobs
in comparison to workers of other countries. The rate of absenteeism ranges
from 4.3% to 44.8%. It also varies with the seasons in the year, the highest being
during May - June every year (44.8%-May 1993). (Table 2.2) The absence from
job may be both authorized and unauthorized. The trends of absenteeism as
observed in manufacturing, mining and plantation industries reveal that it is
mainly due to three following reasons:

(i) Sickness, Accidents or Maternity: These factors accounted for about 0.1% to
6.6% of absenteeism.

(ii) Social and Religious Causes: Under these factors are clubbed such issues like
visiting villages for attending marriages and other social ceremonies, besides
follow and get link
regular attendance at the home town at the time of religious festivals. Such
factors are found causing as high as 1.7% to 14.2% of total absenteeism.
WhatsApp in
discription
(iii) Other causes like visiting villages for attending litigation, matters, rest,
recreation and other causes account for 0.1% to 17.5% of total absenteeism.

It is interesting to note that absenteeism with pay is as high as compared to

without pay; which suggests that Indian workers by and large abstain from work
as long as wages are intact which is far different from the absenteeism of the
early days, when workers were willing to abstain from work even without pay. If
the industry wise absenteeism is taken into consideration from 1951 to 1994, it
would be observed that it has been the highest in textiles, followed by
engineering, plantation (see Table 2.3).

Like absenteeism, the labour turnover shows substantial variation, in 1991 it

was highest in Uttar Pradesh (37.4% accesssion and 35.7% separation). It was
moderately high in Punjab (30.8% accession and 29.5% separation), in Gujarat, it
was moderate (17.1% accession and 17.5% separation). In States like Madhya
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, both the accession and separa tion rate were above 12%
but they were least in West Bengal (4.0% accession and 5.6% separation).

Both the absenteeism and labour turnover are a sign of protest against the
organisational system. These are not an isolated phenomenon but are an
integral part of the psychology and economics of industrial production.
Frequent absenteeism and labour turnover in industries constitute a great drain
on productive resources of the country, as besides hindering human resource
planning. They affect productivity and quality of industrial relations. Hence,
these problems are required to be tackled on sound footing not only for
checking the wastage of human are sources but also for boosting moral and
efficiency of workers.

Labour/Employee Commitment

The employee commitment represents an agreement of the employees with the

goal and objectives of an organisation and a willingness to work towards the
achievement of goal. Steer has identified following characteristics among the
highly-committed employees:
follow and get
(i) a strong desire to remain in a particular organisation
link
WhatsApp
(ii) in
a belief in and acceptance of goals and values of organisation
(iii) a willingness to exert high level of performance to achieve the mission of
discription
organisation.
The employees' commitment focuses attention on the extent to which an
employee identifies with organisational goals, value organisational membership
and intends to work hard, to attain overall organisational mission."

In this sense, commitment fundamentally differs from simple attachment or

membership in the sense that it involves an active relationship between an
employee and his/her employer, such. that the employee is willing to go beyond
the normal required compliance behaviour in order to con tribute to the
realization of organisational goals.

Keer et al have classified commitment into four categories viz.

(i) The uncommitted worker, who is only a temporary member of industrial

society and accepts industrial employment to tide over some temporary
difficulty and goes back to the village after working for a short time;

(ii) The partially committed or semi-committed worker is one who considers

industrial employment, as something permanent but at heart is a villager and
maintains his contacts with the village:

(iii) The generally committed worker is one who has adjusted himself to the
industrial way of life, who depends entirely upon industrial employment for his
livelihood and does not have any contact with the village; and

(iv) The specifically committed worker, who is permanently attached to a

particular enter prise and a particular occupation.

Since the industrial worker in India is essentially rural stock, has a permanent
link with the village, is not fully wedded to the industrial way of life, the rate of
absenteeism has been quite high in Indian industries There is a very low degree
of commitment among industrial workers. But the link of the worker with the
village and his rural origin have now ceased to operate as a bottleneck to the
adoption of the industrial way of life. It would, therefore, be incorrect to infer
follow and get link
on his "village nexus" that there is a low degree of commitment. The presence
of high rates of absenteeism is not a correct indicator of the degree of
WhatsApp in
non-commitment as long as authorized leave and leave due to genuine reasons
are included in the calculation of the rates of absenteeism along with wilful
discription
absence from work.
A few studies, beginning with that of the Labour Investigation Committee to
those conducted by Prabhu, C.A. Myres, Morris and Lambart, have shown that
commitment is not lacking workers in Indian factories, as some people think.
The degree of commitment, however, may not be as high as may be desirable.
But that is attainable once the industries are able to offer the Workers a living
wage, satisfactory conditions of work and security of employment against the
risks and hazards of industrial life. There are, therefore, signs of the growth of a
permanent industrial population. The labour drawn from long distances tends to
settle down permanently in towns. This applies both to workers belonging to
lower castes and landless agricultural laborers, They are getting accustomed to
urban conditions. A stabilized labour force is very desirable in the interest of
industry.

The conditions in industrial areas housing conditions, wages, conditions of work

and living and welfare measures and other facilities-should be improved so that
the causes which complete the workers to go back to villages are controlled and
eliminated. It has been rightly said that a stable labour force "connotes loyalty
and cooperativeness, acquired skill and practical understanding and has a value
which cannot easily be measured in financial terms.

Migratory Character
Another notable characteristic of industrial labour in India has been its
migratory character, indicating that a majority of the workers are in-migrants
from the adjoining rural areas; who maintain their connections with their rural
homes. They visit the villages.as often as possible because "the village is an
infinitely better place than the city for the young and the aged, the married and
the exhausted, the unemployed and the unemployable." The partially
committed character and instability of workers not only retard the economic
development of the country, but also adversely affect the strength of the trade
unions.

In the paragraphs that follow, the problem of migration has

follow and get link
been discussed in detail.
WhatsApp in
discription
Causes of Migration

The evolution of the working class in India has been the direct outcome of the
country's industrial development and a considerable increase in its population.
This increasing number puts a heavy pressure on land forcing many landless
persons to seek alternative employment else where. The British induced land
tenures implicate high taxation and insecurity for the tillers of the soil, which
made them indebted. The growing indebtedness and the diminishing capacity of
the land to sustain them pushed them into nearby cities for urban employment
The number of such job-seekers further increased following the non
intersection, of cottage and village industries under the impact of competition
generated by British imports.

The Royal Commission on Labour summarizes the causes of

city-ward migration in the following words:

"Emigration has always arisen mainly from the difficulty of finding an adequate
livelihood in one's native place, and this is the predominant force which impels
the Indian villagers to seek industrial employment. Over large parts of India, the
number of persons on the land is much greater than the number who cultivate
it and appreciably in excess of the number it can comfortably support. In most
areas, pressure on land has been increasing steadily for a long time, and a rise in
the general standard of living has made this pressure more acutely felt. There
has always been a substantial class of landless laborers earning a meagre living
in good seasons and apt to be reduced to penury in bad ones. The loss of land
through indebtedness, the need for, or desire of, a landlord to increase his own
cultivation quarrels, the death of the title holder and other causes, bring fresh
recruits to this class. Among those who retain tenancies, various changes may
operate to render a holding insufficient for those dependent on it. An increase
in the number of members of the family, a rise in rent, the growth of debt, all
contribute to force the z jricultural worker to abandon his ancestral occupation.
It must not be supposed that the economic pressure which drives the villager to
the city is confined to those engaged in agriculture. The village craftsman,
follow and get link
working formerly within an isolated economic unit, finds himself, by the
improvement of communications and the growth of industry, subjected to
WhatsApp in
competition from the larger world. The textile mills have many weavers drawn
from families that, for generations previously, worked at hand-looms; the village
worker in hides and leather, the carpenter and the blacksmith are all being
discription
subjected to pressure from the factory. In many cases, the easiest, perhaps the
only, way out of the difficulty is for the village craftsman to transfer his
allegiance to the rival which is supplanting him."13

Thus, unlike the West, industrial labour in India has mainly been drawn from
amongst landless agricultural laborers. The immediate causes of this city-ward
migration of the rural people have been:

(i) Increasing pressure of population on land following the decline of cottage

industries

(i) Increasing number of landless agricultural labourers forced to earn their

livelihood elsewhere

(iii) The ill-treatment by the high caste people of scheduled castes and other
depressed classes, and the social disabilities from which these latter people
suffer

(iv) Family quarrels and worries

(v) Indebtedness of the people

These confirm the views of the Royal Commission on Labour, that labourer do
not come to the cities for its attractions or a better way of life, economic
pressures in the village force them to move. The Commission observes: "The
driving force in migration comes entirely from one end of the channel that is,
the village end. The industrial worker is not prompted by the lure of city life or
by any great ambition. The city has no attraction for him, and when he leaves
the village, he has seldom an ambition beyond that of securing the necessities
of life. Few industrial workers would remain in industry, if they could secure
significant food and clothing in the village. They are pushed, not pulled, to the
city. The great majority of these workers were at heart villagers, for they were
brought up in the villages. The had the village traditions and retained contact
with the villagers.
follow and get link
WhatsApp in
THE
discriptionEND
follow and get link
WhatsApp in
discription
follow and get link
WhatsApp in
discription