Page:Labour in Madras.djvu/203



LABOUR IN MADRAS 177 Fraternal Delegates from the Organized Workers of India to the Labour Party and the Trade Union Congress. APPENDIX II. A memorandum on “ Labour Problems in India" is. sued to the Trades Union Congress held at Glasgow in September 1919, by Mr. B. P. Wadia. Labour conditions in India are exceptional, for in that vast country labour is not organised; it is exploited by the capitalistic class; its interests are not watched by the Government; the working hours are extremely long; the wages are miserably low; the housing problem is in the stage of mere academic and theoretic discussion. The only place where recently an effort has been made to organise labour is the city of Madras, where five Unions have been formed the Madras Labour Union, Madras Tramwaymen's Union, Madras Rickshawallas' Union, Madras Printers' Union and Madras Railway Workshop Union. I am the President of the first of these and am in Great Britain as a representative of all of them (Sub Appendix A.) I come here as a fraternal delegate to the Labour Party and the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress (Sub-Appendix B.) Though labour conditions in India are exceptional they do not warrant Indian labour representation being shut out at the International Labour Conference which is to meet at Washington in the course of a few weeks. The tendency of the official policy is to regard Indian labour as subservient to the industrial development of India. Such an attitude may obscure the fact that Indian labour will be allowed to be exploited as hitherto. Capi 12