Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/311

 BENGAL. But the

follows.

classification is evidently

must be accepted with as

many

as

46^

all

the

reserve.

301 an unsatisfactory one, and

Of the whole population

millions are returned as ‘unemployed.’ all

the

employment besides their unemployed females amounts

to

30,466,119

children

population of 34,911,270. 2 millions are

number

in

employed

These

figures

women who have no specific own household work. The number of

and

include

of 69,536,861,

out of a total female

Of the remaining 4^

in agricultural pursuits,

million females, almost

and a

slightly smaller

Among the

manufactures and technical industry.

34,625,591 males in Bengal, 15,830,331 are returned as unemployed, these being A nearly equal number almost entirely children and old men. (i3i332,S57) derive their income from land-ownership and cultivation ;

more than 2J millions are employed in manufactures and technical rather more than a million belong to the commercial class

industry





while the remainder (624,538) or Government employes.

rather less than a million are in service are professional

The people

men



of the eastern Districts of the Province are as a rule

In the

better off than those in the western Districts. rate of

wages

is

higher in the east, while food

is

secondly, the pressure of the population on the soil are

first

much

place, the

generally cheaper is

lighter,

and rents

consequently lower in comparison to the productiveness of the

and the remunerative character of such Districts to the west, however, where labour

soil

staples as jute, etc.

In

cheap and land dear, the people emigrate to other parts of the country for temporary service and labour. Thus, the people of Behar, Orissa, and Chutia Nagpur es{)ecially every year send colonies into Bengal, besides furnishing labourers for the tea Districts. The emigration from Calcutta to countries beyond sea averages only 12,000 per

The

prices of

common

food differ

much

is

annum.

at the central

marts and in

the isolated tracts of the interior, being tolerably uniform in the former,

but sometimes extraordinarily cheap in the facilities for

latter.

transport are tending to correct this



The

increasing

but prices are every-

where much higher than they used to be in former times. At present, in Bengal and Behar hamlets, a rupee will ordinarily purchase 20 to 25 sers (40 to 50 lbs.) of common rice, and in Orissa from 25 to 30 sers. During the last generation it would have purchased 40 sers., and in the generation before that, 60 sers and upwards. In Calcutta itself, prices of food are still dearer ; there, a rupee will seldom purchase more than In Behar, however, maize and other cereals, 16 sers of common rice. besides rice, are consumed ; and of these, a rupee will purchase as much as 35 sers. The wages of labour may be generally stated at i to 2 annas (i|d. to 3d.) a day in Behar, 2 annas (3d.) in Orissa, 3 annas (4|d.) in Northern Bengal, 4 annas (6d.) in Central Bengal, 5 annas (7^d.) in Eastern Bengal, and 4 to 6 annas (6d. to pd.) in Calcutta.