DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24890#0111
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{1) Bakraich.
(2) Ballia.
(3) Benares
(7) Azamgarh.
(4) Ghazipur.
(5) Gonda.
(6) Gorakhpur.
to close all works on the 15th of September, which were duly
carried out.
It was at one time stated, though not originally in
connection with these Provinces, that relief works attracted
labourers from railway works. In the North-Western Pro-
vinces and Oudh railway works
were during the prevalence of the
famine in progress in the dis-
tricts marginally noted. In the
first four districts named no relief works of any description
were undertaken during the famine. In the three remaining
districts the maximum number of persons—men, women, and
children—employed at any time on relief works never
exceeded 46,000 out of a population of 5^ millions, and were
usually very much below this figure. Obviously these figures
could in no case lend much support to a charge of com-
petition with private or other enterprise: and a minute
examination of the facts shows that they lend no support
whatever. The Gorakhpur district, of the three, furnished
the greatest number (33,000) of relief labourers ; while none
of these were employed in the vicinity of the railway works.
Jn Azamgarh, so long as railway works were in progress,
special care was taken not to open relief works in their
vicinity, and the Railway Resident Engineer, at the height
of the pressure (in May) admitted that, as a matter of fact, no
labourers had been attracted from railway to relief works.
In Gonda the numbers on relief works were always insignifi-
cant. If private employers failed to obtain all the labour
they wanted, the reason was that the rate of wages they
offered failed to follow the great rise in the prices of food.
If any railway in these Provinces experienced a similar diffi-
culty, the difficulty was due to the competition of other rail-
ways. Ordinary labourers could not get a subsistence on the
works at the normal rates paid by the Railway employers
operating in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh; though,
as a prominent Railway Manager said, the Luniah (profes-
sional labourer) could earn a subsistence “ at extra good lift
and lead rates.” The result was that the ordinary labourer was
not attracted to the railway works, while there was an unusu-
ally large emigration of the professional class in October and
November, long before relief works were started, to the Assam-
Bengal Railway. The contract rates in famine districts for
earthwork on railways should have been increased if the
railway desired to command the labour market; but this
increase was not made. The rate paid on relief works in
Gorakhpur from the end of March was Re. 1-14-0 per thousand
cubic feet, or three annas per one hundred cubic feet only.
As in that district 100 cubic feet was the ordinary daily
task of a working party of three individuals who were not
allowed to execute more than 125 cubic feet in one day as a
26
{1) Bakraich.
(2) Ballia.
(3) Benares
(7) Azamgarh.
(4) Ghazipur.
(5) Gonda.
(6) Gorakhpur.
to close all works on the 15th of September, which were duly
carried out.
It was at one time stated, though not originally in
connection with these Provinces, that relief works attracted
labourers from railway works. In the North-Western Pro-
vinces and Oudh railway works
were during the prevalence of the
famine in progress in the dis-
tricts marginally noted. In the
first four districts named no relief works of any description
were undertaken during the famine. In the three remaining
districts the maximum number of persons—men, women, and
children—employed at any time on relief works never
exceeded 46,000 out of a population of 5^ millions, and were
usually very much below this figure. Obviously these figures
could in no case lend much support to a charge of com-
petition with private or other enterprise: and a minute
examination of the facts shows that they lend no support
whatever. The Gorakhpur district, of the three, furnished
the greatest number (33,000) of relief labourers ; while none
of these were employed in the vicinity of the railway works.
Jn Azamgarh, so long as railway works were in progress,
special care was taken not to open relief works in their
vicinity, and the Railway Resident Engineer, at the height
of the pressure (in May) admitted that, as a matter of fact, no
labourers had been attracted from railway to relief works.
In Gonda the numbers on relief works were always insignifi-
cant. If private employers failed to obtain all the labour
they wanted, the reason was that the rate of wages they
offered failed to follow the great rise in the prices of food.
If any railway in these Provinces experienced a similar diffi-
culty, the difficulty was due to the competition of other rail-
ways. Ordinary labourers could not get a subsistence on the
works at the normal rates paid by the Railway employers
operating in the North-Western Provinces and Oudh; though,
as a prominent Railway Manager said, the Luniah (profes-
sional labourer) could earn a subsistence “ at extra good lift
and lead rates.” The result was that the ordinary labourer was
not attracted to the railway works, while there was an unusu-
ally large emigration of the professional class in October and
November, long before relief works were started, to the Assam-
Bengal Railway. The contract rates in famine districts for
earthwork on railways should have been increased if the
railway desired to command the labour market; but this
increase was not made. The rate paid on relief works in
Gorakhpur from the end of March was Re. 1-14-0 per thousand
cubic feet, or three annas per one hundred cubic feet only.
As in that district 100 cubic feet was the ordinary daily
task of a working party of three individuals who were not
allowed to execute more than 125 cubic feet in one day as a
26