The Gazetteers Department

There were 21 residential-cum-boarding houses in the city at the time of survey, 15 of which were located in C ward, four in E ward and one each in B and D wards. The total employment in all these establishments was 113 persons most of whom were paid employees. Only seven members of owners' families were engaged in this occupation, out of them three were males, one was a female and the remaining two children. Three establishments were surveyed in the sample. They were started between 1948 and 1954. Lodging and boarding was the principal occupation of the owners of the two establishments. The third owner had a cinema theatre and lodging and boarding was his subsidiary occupation. Two establishments were situated in rented premises. The rent of each was Rs. 60 and Rs. 75. Third was situated in owned premises, the value of which was about Rs. one lakh. The initial capital required for starting their establishments was raised by two owners from own resources and the third owner borrowed a part of capital from a local bank. It was found that he had not wholly repaid the debt. The biggest establishment in the sample had invested Rs. 115,000 in this occupation and the other two Rs. 5,000 and Rs. 2,500 respectively.

The equipment used was all kinds of utensils for cooking and serving dishes, furniture like tables, chairs, cots, mirrors, tea-trays, etc. One establishment had a radio set also. The biggest establishment in the sample had equipment worth Rs. 9,000 and the remaining two had equipment worth Rs. 2,000 each.

The total employment in all the three units in the sample was 30 persons out of whom eight were the members of owners families. One establishment had a female servant. All the employees were paid wages as well as given two meals a day. A person looking after the management of the establishments was paid Rs. 45 per month, plus two meals. A cook in one of the establishments was paid Rs. 40 per month, plus two meals a day. in another Rs. 55 with two meals. Waiters were paid Rs. 25 and Rs. 35 respectively in the two establishments. The total wage bill of the three establishments was Rs. 665 per month, plus the expenditure on meals.

Other items of expenditure were rent, water and electric charges, municipal licence fee and municipal tax and radio licence fee. The total expenditure on all these items per establishment was Rs. 95, Rs, 110 and Rs, 155 per month respectively.

Raw materials required were food grains, milk, vegetables, tea and other requirements for cooking. One establishment was both vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian. It consumed mutton and fish along with above materials. All these materials were purchased from local market. The biggest establishment spent about Rs. 1,000 per month on this item, others about Rs. 200 and Rs. 450 respectively. The cost of maintenance of an establishment depended mostly upon the current prices of food grains, fuel, other materials like milk, etc. The total cost of maintenance of the establishments were Rs. 750, Rs. 960 and Rs. 1,300 per month respectively.

These establishments provided both lodging as well as boarding facilities. The net income earned by the biggest was about Rs. 1,500 per month and by others Rs. 300 and Rs. 200 respectively. This occupation was more or less profitable to one establishment and in the other two the margin of profit was not very high.

These establishments catered the needs of all classes of people within or outside the district. The demand for lodging in these establishments was more or less constant throughout the year.

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