DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24890#0104
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the pressure which followed. They were devised to meet
the exigencies of a famine which it was foreseen would
be severe, but the extent and duration of which was
necessarily uncertain. The Government in its famine policy
had three aims. The first aim was to ensure that all
destitute persons should be relieved: the second that they
should be compelled to do all the work of which they
were capable, partly as a test of their requiring relief,
and partly to obtain value for expenditure incurred: the
third aim was the strict limitation of the relief adminis-
tered or the expenditure incurred to the amount necessary to
save life. There were two main tests of distress—a high
task, and a low subsistence wage combined with a distance test.
In the districts which had not suffered in the preceding year
high tasks were enforced. In those acutely distressed districts
which had passed through a famine in the preceding spring and
summer the condition of the people was so low that a high
task could not be performed, and here, at first, reliance was
placed on the subsistence wage combined with the distance test.
In other words, people had not only to complete the task
entitling them to the subsistence wage, but they had to show that
they were really in need of relief by seeking it at some distance
from their homes. Later on. after the rabi or spring harvest
had replenished grain stocks to some extent, the “Intermediate
system” of works, which has been explained, was introduced
and had the effect of a fairly high task very rigidly enforced.
But at all times and under both systems the task exacted was
all that could be obtained in the conditions under which it was
necessary to grant relief. The high proportion which carriers
(women and children) would bear to diggers was foreseen
in the rules; but in judging the Public Works system of
famine relief during 1897 on the basis of the quantity of
earthwork executed per unit and its cost, it must not be for-
gotten that a substantial part of the Provinces- had passed
through a severe famine in 1896: that the condition of the
population then was very enfeebled: that during the rabi
harvest, and to a lesser extent from that time up to the
close of the relief works, the people, especially the diggers em-
ployed on relief works, consisted largely of the old and infirm,
those capable of doing a full or more than a full day’s work
having found employment elsewhere in harvesting, where they
could earn more than a subsistence wage. While food grain
was selling for less than 10 seers (201bs.) per rupee, the maxi-
mum wage was seven pice for a digger or If anna. When the
price of food grain fell to 12 seers (2!lbs.) per rupee, the maxi-
mum wage was lowered to If anna per day, while adult carriers
got If anna and children proportionately less. No wage in
excess of that admissible under the rules was ever permitted.
So that persons in good physical condition, who could earn
the pressure which followed. They were devised to meet
the exigencies of a famine which it was foreseen would
be severe, but the extent and duration of which was
necessarily uncertain. The Government in its famine policy
had three aims. The first aim was to ensure that all
destitute persons should be relieved: the second that they
should be compelled to do all the work of which they
were capable, partly as a test of their requiring relief,
and partly to obtain value for expenditure incurred: the
third aim was the strict limitation of the relief adminis-
tered or the expenditure incurred to the amount necessary to
save life. There were two main tests of distress—a high
task, and a low subsistence wage combined with a distance test.
In the districts which had not suffered in the preceding year
high tasks were enforced. In those acutely distressed districts
which had passed through a famine in the preceding spring and
summer the condition of the people was so low that a high
task could not be performed, and here, at first, reliance was
placed on the subsistence wage combined with the distance test.
In other words, people had not only to complete the task
entitling them to the subsistence wage, but they had to show that
they were really in need of relief by seeking it at some distance
from their homes. Later on. after the rabi or spring harvest
had replenished grain stocks to some extent, the “Intermediate
system” of works, which has been explained, was introduced
and had the effect of a fairly high task very rigidly enforced.
But at all times and under both systems the task exacted was
all that could be obtained in the conditions under which it was
necessary to grant relief. The high proportion which carriers
(women and children) would bear to diggers was foreseen
in the rules; but in judging the Public Works system of
famine relief during 1897 on the basis of the quantity of
earthwork executed per unit and its cost, it must not be for-
gotten that a substantial part of the Provinces- had passed
through a severe famine in 1896: that the condition of the
population then was very enfeebled: that during the rabi
harvest, and to a lesser extent from that time up to the
close of the relief works, the people, especially the diggers em-
ployed on relief works, consisted largely of the old and infirm,
those capable of doing a full or more than a full day’s work
having found employment elsewhere in harvesting, where they
could earn more than a subsistence wage. While food grain
was selling for less than 10 seers (201bs.) per rupee, the maxi-
mum wage was seven pice for a digger or If anna. When the
price of food grain fell to 12 seers (2!lbs.) per rupee, the maxi-
mum wage was lowered to If anna per day, while adult carriers
got If anna and children proportionately less. No wage in
excess of that admissible under the rules was ever permitted.
So that persons in good physical condition, who could earn