i 3 2 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



and the problem of recruitment is easier because in Madras Province, 

 and especially in Malabar, there is a great mass of labour seeking work. 

 The existence of ' distressed ' areas, where poverty was extreme and 

 perennial, facilitated recruitment at the outset. The labour comes to 

 the estates and returns to a near-by home once a year, for the tea year is a 

 ten-month year, and in the two idle months the workers go home. This is 

 the inland side of that great overseas movement which until recently took 

 place year by year from the west coast of Madras to the rice fields of the 

 Irrawaddy Delta in Burma. 



In Ceylon there are, from an agricultural standpoint, four distinct 

 divisions of population : (i) the European commercial and planting 

 community ; (2) the native Sinhalese, who are the officials, the lawyers, 

 and the ordinary agriculturists of the island, but though some Sinhalese 

 are employed incidentally on the estates, they are rarely part of its labour 

 force ; (3) the old immigrants from South India, the Jaffna Tamils, who 

 are also agriculturists — Jaffna being a rich agricultural district which, 

 inter alia, grows tobacco for the South Indian market ; (4) the estate 

 labourers, also Tamils from India, who supply the labour force of the 

 estates. It is estimated that in 1935 the estate population of men, women 

 and children numbered 688,000, or one-ninth of the island population. 

 The movement of labour is strictly controlled, and there are no abuses. 

 They have paid in the past periodic visits to their old homes, but more and 

 more the younger workers are coming to regard the estate where they 

 work and perhaps were born as their home. 



I did not visit Assam, therefore I will draw my examples of wages and 

 living conditions from South India and Ceylon. In South India the 

 methods of wage payment (16 annas = R.i, 1 anna — a penny) are 

 as follows : 



A male worker earns 6 to 7 annas a day and is given a definite task of 

 digging, etc. , to perform in the working day. The women work by piece- 

 rate, so much per pound of green leaf plucked. In the hot weather, 

 when the crop is short, they may earn only 2 to 3 annas a day, but in the 

 flush season perhaps a rupee. Under restriction the working week is 

 a five-day one, with no plucking on Saturday or Sunday. The earnings 

 of the worker are not, however, paid out each day or week, or even each 

 month. They are credited to him or her on the worker's check roll 

 account and paid out as follows : each week to each man and woman 

 4 annas for the whole week (also 2 to each working child), this payment 

 being called selvado, together with a ration of rice, say 11 annas' worth 

 per adult worker. During the season one or more advances will be made 

 to enable the worker to pay off village debts or to incur some outlay, such 

 as purchasing a marriage sari (dress). Finally, at the end of the season, 

 the worker draws a lump sum in cash, being the balance of what is due 

 to him after all deductions. This sum the workers take home with them, 

 but it is said that many are already so greatly in debt to a near-by money- 

 lender or trader that the lump sum earned is in their possession only for 

 a moment. 



In Ceylon (100 cents = R.i, 6 cents = a penny) the system is 

 different. First of all there is a legal basic rate, which is fully enforced. 



