Mr. ROBINSONasked the Under-Secretary of State for India what was the number of factories in 1927 subject to the Indian Factories Act; the number of employés, the number of women, and the number of children; the number of factories and percentage maintaining a 48-hour week for men, and similar figures for factories employing women; what are the maximum weekly hours for children; whether any prosecutions were made for breaches of the Indian Factories Act; and, if so, what was the number and the number of convictions?
§ Earl WINTERTONThe latest figures available are for 1926. In that year there were 7,251 factories subject to the Act; the average daily numbers employed were: All employés, 1,518,391; women, 249,669; children, 60,094; the number of factories in which the normal weekly hours were not above 48 was 1,999 (or 27 per cent.) for men and 1,544 (or 32 per cent.) for women; the legal maximum of hours for children is six in any one day and there is a weekly rest day. I am unable to give the number of prosecutions, but the number of convictions was 1,417, the number of persons convicted being 349.