§ Mr. JOHN WARDasked the Under-Secretary if he will state what are the ages at which children are allowed to work in textile factories under the new Indian factory law, and in other than textile factories under the existing factory law?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe age limits of children in the new Act, as in the existing Act, are nine to fourteen years for all classes of factories alike. I will cause a copy of the new Act to be placed in the Library when it reaches this country.
§ Mr. BARTONasked whether, as the now Factory Act at present before the Government of India makes no improvement in the hours of women workers, he proposes to take any steps to secure the same relative improvement for the women as for the men?
§ Mr. MONTAGUBoth Sir Hamilton Freer-Smith's Indian Factories Committee and the Labour Commission reported that as regards day work the conditions of employment of women in Indian mills was satisfactory. Women were generally em- 1515 ployed on piecework, were free to come and go as they pleased, and of their own accord worked less than the statutory eleven hours. Their physique was uniformly excellent. In abolishing night work for women in textile factories, and in narrowing the limits within which the day employment of women is permitted, the new Act has gone as far as appears to be demanded.