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15. In the interests both of men and women workers the principle should be applied of equal pay for work of equal value with a view to establishing procedures for determining wage rates on the basis of job content without regard to sex, in accordance with the principles set forth in the Constitution of the International Labour Organization.. E. Investigation and Further Action 16. The Conference recommends to the Governments of Asian countries that they investigate the problems of women workers and the means of assuring to them in all branches of economic activity the benefits and protections laid down in this resolution, and that specialized agencies or personnel should be provided for this purpose. 17. The Conference, moreover, requests the Governing Body to instruct the International Labour Office to study, with the assistance of the Governments of Asian countries, — (а) Questions relating to the type of occupation other than those involving rough and heavy labour in which the employment of women workers should be encouraged; (б) Measures necessary for the protection of the health of women workers employed on heavy labour ; (c) The administrative arrangements needed for carrying out the policies concerning the employment of women embodied in this resolution. 18. The Conference further requests the Governing Body to consider, in the light of the progress made in the studies undertaken on the basis of this resolution, what aspects of these questions could usefully be further considered by succeeding Asian Regional Conferences. 6. Resolution concerning Rural Labour and Related Problems A. Primary Producers in the Rural Areas 1. The primary producers in the rural areas of Asia constitute more than half of the working people of the world. Their social and economic problems are many and varied in character, and their working and living conditions are in certain areas deplorable and require early improvement. 2. The Conference therefore requests the Governing Body to assist the Governments of Asian countries, in co-operation with the other international organizations concerned, to prepare and develop comprehensive programmes of action for improving by stages the conditions of life and work of the rural populations in the Asian region, with particular reference to (a) the problems of village artisaftis, small owner-cultivators, tenant-culti-vators, and landless labourers, and (b) co-operative organizations in agriculture, and spread of literacy, medical service in rural areas, and relief during famines, floods, and other calamities. B. Forced Labour 3. Some forms of forced labour, illegitimate exactions, and servile land tenure still persist in varying degrees in the agrarian structure of certain areas of some Asian countries, and their existence is not only a denial of the fundamental rights of human beings, but also a menace to the speedy and full development of the economy of the areas concerned. 4. The Conference therefore requests the Governing Body to call the attention of the Governments of Asian countries to the immediate necessity of taking effective steps for the eradication of forced labour and servitude in all their forms where such exist, and to instruct the International Labour Office to study this problem, with the assistance of the Governments of the countries concerned.

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