Bangladesh, Industrial Worker

Convention

Industrial proletariat emerged in India in the middle of 1800 when Indian Railway came into being along with its ancillary industries. Great Indian Railway Company and Great Indian Peninsular Railway Company (both were private enterprises) installed the first railways tracks in dia in 1853 and in1859 respectively.These developments were fuelledby the discovery of huge coal reserves in undivided Bengal in 1770. 1843 saw the birth of the first coal mines under the aegis of another private enterprise, the Bengal Coal Company. The first large scale mining operation started in Jharia. The British tea Company, Assam tea Company started operating in 1839.

Gate meetingThis had set the proper backdrop for the emergence of industrial proletariat in India, particularly in undivided Bengal. The first ever Jute Mill in the Sub-continent started operating in Bengal, at Rishra in 1854, in the same district of Bengal where Hindusthan Motors was currently situated.First ever cotton mill in India was established in Bauria, a subarb of the city of Calcutta in 1818. By 1880, India witnessed the growth of about 58 spinning in all the major provinces of our country. Tagore's ancestor, Prince Dwaraka nath, not only founded the indigenous indigo compny, but also purchased the Chinakuri coal company . Jamshedji Tata founded the Tata iron and steel works in 1908.

Hunger StrikeIn 1833, Ram Mohan Ray, a representative of the landed gentry , had described the plight of the workers in the most thorough going manner. The skilled workers in those days used to earn about 10-12 rupees a month, while unskilled one would earn about 4 rpees a month. The consumer price index, in tho1901 to 1911, the increase in the labour force in the construction sector was 18.2se days had a hike increase of 75% compared to 1820. It may be mentioned that the wage of the jute workers remained stagnant during the period 1860- 1892. During the period 1901 to 1911, the increase in the labour force in the construction sector was 18.2% and that of in the transport sector was 29.4%.