The Cambridge History of India, Vol. III: Turks and Afghans v3.c20.509

v3.c20.509

Some of the measures introduced by Fīrūz for the welfare of his subjects may be described as grandmotherly legislation. One of them was a marriage bureau and another an employment bureau. The marriage of girls who have reached marriageable age is regarded in India, with some reason, as a religious duty, and Fīrūz charged himself with the task of seeing that no girl of his own faith remained unmarried for want of a dowry. His agency worked chiefly among the middle class and the widows and orphans of public servants, and was most efficient. The employment agency, unlike those of our day, was concerned chiefly with those who desired clerical and administrative employment, for at this time the extension of cultivation and the construction of public works provided ample employment for labourers and handicraftsmen. It was the duty of the *kotwāl* of Delhi to seek those who were without employment and to produce them at court. Here Fīrūz personally made inquiry into their circumstances and qualifications, and after consulting, as far as possible, their inclination, provided them with employment. Whether there was any demand for their services lay beyond the scope of the inquiry, for the business was conducted on charitable rather than on economic principles and probably provided sinecures for many a young idler.