The Gazetteers Department

Bhir district is predominantly an agricultural district with more than 80 per cent of its population depending on agriculture. The ratio of employment in industry in Bhir is one worker per thousand of total population as against 20 per thousand of total population for Maharashtra. The table No. 1 on page 337 gives the statistics of employment in various categories of industries. There is no large-scale manufacturing industry in the district. The total number of registered factories has increased from 15 in 1951 to 25 in 1961.

The negligence of industrial development of Marathwada region in the past is one of the reasons for the backwardness of Bhir district. The transport and communications facilities are also not satisfactory. The total length of railways in the district is only 407.36 kilometres. Mining activity in the district is also confined to quarrying of stones, clay, sand, etc., with 558 persons engaged in it according to 1961 census. The lack of power, literacy and technical know-how are also the reasons for the slow progress of the district in the industrial field.

In respect of the village industries the handloom industry is the major cottage industry in the district. The largest number of the workers were engaged in household industries, (i.e. 82 per cent of the total number of industrial workers).

Cottage industries have always provided the cultivator with the means, not only of earning his livelihood but of keeping himself occupied during periods of enforced idleness. Hand-loom weaving is the most important of all cottage industries and is next only to agriculture in importance and usefulness as a natural occupation. In 1941, this occupation was pursued by 3 per cent of the district population. There were 1096 registered looms in 1958, of which 772 looms were run by weavers' co-operative societies. The other chief crafts are wool-weaving, tanning, leather working, rope making, copper and brass work. etc. Blacksmiths, potters—kumbhars, carpenters;—sutars. are found to be working in almost all towns and villages. Artisans of the district making gupti, copper and brass wares are well-known for their skill. Bamboo working and oil ghanis are the other sources of employment.

There are no engineering units as such except two workshop depots of State Transport, one at Bhir and the other at Parali. A few persons only are engaged in minor repairs of tools, implements and machines. The total number of factories registered under the Factories Act was 23 in 1959, the average number of workers employed being 1295. The nature of the agricultural produce has influenced the types of industries which have so far developed in the district. Out of these 23 factories, 7 were engaged in cotton ginning and pressing, 10 in oil crushing, 4 in gul-making and 2 in manufacture of tobacco products. In addition to these there were 4 units engaged in wood working and saw milling.

The development of the industrial units in the district dates back to 1905 when two Italian traders established a ginning factory having 22 gins. After that two new enterprises were established; one a ginning and pressing factory in 1912 and another a cotton ginning and oil expelling unit, both at Parali in 1935. There was no remarkable development of industries till 1950. Most of the present mills and factories were established after 1950. Ginning and pressing is an important processing industry in this essentially cotton growing area. Most of them take to oil milling in the slack season.

Even the important towns in the district had no electric power till 1956. In that year, a power generating plant with 130 kw. capacity, and power lines of the length of 4.023 km. (2.5 miles) was installed at Parali. In 1958 another plant with 8.851 km. (5.5 miles) of line and a capacity of 150 kw. was installed. The Maharashtra State Electricity Board had by 1960 spent Rs. 8,23,900 in the district on different electricity generation projects. The total installed capacity of power generation is 280 kw. and the utilised capacity is 235 kw. As industrial development pre-supposes the availability of ample power supply, it is envisaged that the development in this direction may give some fillip to the future industrialisation of the district.

Industrialisation, in the district, has to be based to a large extent on locally available raw materials. Amongst the raw materials available in the district are the agricultural: products like cotton, groundnut, sugarcane, cereals and pulses. Processing of these can be carried out extensively, for example dal making from the pulses. It is necessary to make strenuous attempts to build up relatively small-scale but efficient industrial structure in the district. For the setting up of an industrial estate at Parali an area of 6.999 hectares (17 acres and 12 gunthas) has been selected and a co-operative society has been registered with a membership of 90. It has raised a share capital of Rs. 20,000. Government have contributed an equal amount towards the share capital.

In 1962 in Bhir district, there were 38 industrial units registered under the Factories Act, 1948 and the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951. Of these, four units were large-scale and 34 small-scale. Further, there was one small-scale unit which was not registered under the Factories Act. The category-wise distribution of these industrial units and the employment provided by them was as detailed below. [Details collected from the Commercial Directory of Industries in Maharashtra 1962, Parts I, II and III.]

TABLE No. 1

Employment in various Industries in BhIr District

Classification of Industries	Total workers			Workers in household industry			Workers in non-household industry
Division	Persons	Males	Females	Persons	Males	Females	Persons	Males	Females
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)	(10)
Mining and Quarrying	558	466	92	5	4	1	553	462	91
Manufacturing—
Food-stuffs	2,835	2,200	635	1,568	1,090	478	1,267	1,110	157
Beverages	398	365	33	234	218	16	164	147	17
Tobacco products	103	38	65	60	21	39	43	17	26
Textile—cotton	1,340	659	681	1,138	536	602	202	123	79
Textile—jute	284	202	82	262	187	75	22	15	7
Textile—wool	524	240	284	500	221	279	24	19	5
Textile—silk	7	6	1	2	1	1	5	5	--
Textile—miscellaneous	2,579	2,321	258	1,621	1,423	198	958	898	60
Wood and wood products	4,996	4,136	860	4,344	3,521	823	652	615	37
Paper and paper products	7	2	5	4	--	4	3	2	1

TABLE No. 1—cont.

Employment in various Industries in Bhir District

Classification of Industries	Total workers			Workers in household industry			Workers in non-household industry
Division	Persons	Males	Females	Persons	Males	Females	Persons	Males	Females
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)	(10)
Manufacturing—Cont.—
Printing and publishing	24	24	--	2	2	--	22	22	--
Leather and leather products	2,926	2,653	273	2,742	2,484	258	184	169	15
Rubber, petroleum and oil products	3	1	2	2	--	2	1	1	--
Chemicals and chemical products	129	89	40	86	49	37	43	40	3
Non-metallic mineral products (other than petroleum and coal).	2,455	1,527	928	1,970	1,172	798	485	355	130
Basic metals and their products	1,377	1,197	180	1,116	957	159	261	240	21
Machinery and electrical equipment	42	41	1	2	2	--	40	39	1
Transport equipment	836	813	23	617	598	19	219	215	4
Miscellaneous manufacturing industries	1,159	1,125	34	879	853	29	280	272	8
Construction—
Construction and maintenance of buildings	2,362	2,108	254	--	--	--	2,362	2,108	254
Construction and maintenance of roads, railways, bridges and tunnels.	1,158	835	323	--	--	--	1,158	835	323
Construction and maintenance of telegraph and telephone lines.	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
Construction and maintenance of waterways and water reservoirs, irrigation and other agricultural works.	380	252	128	--	--	--	380	252	128
Electricity, gas, water and Sanitary Services—
Electricity and gas	50	50	--	--	--	--	50	50	--
Water-supply and sanitary services	148	53	95	--	--	--	148	53	95

Category	Number of Units	Number of Workers
(1)	(2)	(3)
(1) *Large-scale— Oil mills and ginning factories	4	312
(2) †Small-scale —	21	427
Cotton ginning and pressing	7	158
Bidi making	2	34
Maintenance and repair of moto vehicles.	3	98
Stone crushing	1	18
(3)‡Small-scale Ironpots, ghamelas, etc.	1	2

*Industrial units registered under the Factories Act, 1948 and Industrial (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951.

† Industrial units registered under the Factories Act, 1948.

‡ Industrial Units not registered under the Factories Act.