Vol. 10 · pages 201–205

184 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES Out of the 6,000 surplus trainees, civil industry has only taken 3,000. Indeed, they prefer to employ untrained workmen in the expectation that they will acquire the necessary skill and training in the course of employment or as apprentices. This reluctance to employ the trainees from our technical training centres may be due to various causes. I have heard of complaints that our training is inadequate. Civil industry insists on their technical personnel possessing a higher degree of skill than can be provided by our Scheme, in which we attempted—no doubt under the pressure of war—to give technical training in 8 months which before the war took 5 years. I am, however, satisfied that it is not at all necessary that a training scheme should run the full length of a five-year course in order to satisfy the requirements of civil industry. Experience gained by wartime technical training schemes in other countries shows that with intensive training semi-skilled men can be quickly trained for most industries. Industry’s Responsibility If, therefore, the training imparted under the Technical Training Scheme is supplemented by further ‘biased’ training, the final product should be acceptable to civil industry. I am, however, prepared to admit that there are faults in our Training Scheme. I am also prepared to accept any reasonable changes that may be suggested to make our trainees passable to Industry. But unless Industry agrees to absorb our trainees, there is no hope of a technical training scheme being made a success in this country. Industry therefore should note that a very heavy responsibility lies on its shoulders. You, gentlemen, know the needs of industry better than I do. All I can say is, that if the Scheme is to succeed it must have the cooperation of employers and workers in determining its future. We have no time to lose or else we may find that we have only won the war, but done nothing for the peace. As I have already said we have two questions to deal with : (1) To find employment for trainees who will be discharged from the Army after the war is over and for trainees who are completing the prescribed courses of training, (2) To revise the scheme for technical training as a part of the Post-War Plan of Industrial Reconstruction. These are two distinct questions and we propose to tackle them separately. That is

185 POST-WAR EMPLOYMENT OF SKILLED WORKERS why we have thought it desirable to proceed by two stages. Relevant to the second stage is the question : What changes can be made in our Technical Training Scheme to make it serve fully and completely the present-day needs of civil industry. It involves the consideration of the long-term policy, of providing trained technical personnel for the postwar industrial development of the country. Employment of Skilled Workers On the other hand the problem we have to consider as relevant to the first stage is to find ways and means for the rehabilitation of the thousands of our skilled workers, turned out by our training centres, now serving in the Army but who will be soon thrown out of employment at the close of the war. Our expectation is that Industry should not find it difficult to take over these men, especially, as we hope that there will be a post-war expansion of civil industry and a consequent increase in the demand for men technically trained. The immediate problem before us is : How to fit them to our peacetime industrial structure, we want to examine the difficulties connected with it and to plan to meet them well in advance. To accomplish success in this we have to see what further training and what additions and modifications in our training syllabuses, or introduction of subsidiary courses are necessary in order to make our trainees more acceptable to existing industries. The results of your deliberations will determine what future progress we can make in the next stage. The two stages are closely connected and the second is no less important than the first. I do not wish to take more of your time as I know you have a heavy agenda. But before I close I should like to say how important it is that we should have an adequate supply of skilled personnel if we are to plan a brighter future for our country. It is only by tripartite cooperation between Government, employers and workers that we can hope to develop a technical training scheme on sound lines. I would here make a special appeal to employers and industrialists. Their specialised knowledge and experience is invaluable but no less is their future co-operation in maintaining any technical training scheme that may be set up by Government.

186 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES One word more and I will close. Is unemployment to be the fate of the trainees who have gone to the Army and who will before long be returning to civil life ? Is that to be reward of the services they have rendered and the risks they have taken ? I am sure we shall not fail them. If we neglect them, they will constitute a powerful centre of discontent in industry. Suitably accommodated in civil life after the war, they will help to give stability to industry. They will bring to civil industry the sense of discipline which they have acquired in the Army. It is for you to say what measures Government must take to re-condition them for civil employment. I can assure you Government will not only be grateful to you for your advice but will do its best to give effect to such measures as may be found reasonable and practicable. Committee’s Discussions Later the Committee discussed various problems relating to technical training and emphasised the importance of improving educational standards of technical trainees. Mr. S. Lall, Joint Secretary, Labour Department, presided. * * * *Visit To Employment Exchange Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, who arrived in Calcutta on August 23, inspected the Calcutta Employment Exchange, accompanied by Mr. S. Lall, Joint Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Labour, and formerly Deputy High Commissioner for india in London. The Labour Member discussed various matters relating to the operation of the Employment Exchange Scheme in Calcutta and the working of the National Service (Technical Personnel) Ordinance with Mr. A. Hughes, Labour Commissioner with the Government of Bengal. There was also a discussion on Government of India’s policy to close down technical training centres as far as it affected Bengal. Dr. Ambedkar saw a large number of workmen who had come to the Exchange for registration. Mr. Hughes and Mr. Bennett (Manager of the Exchange) explained the process of registration and the card index system. *Indian Information, September 15, 1944, p. 278.

187 POST-WAR EMPLOYMENT OF SKILLED WORKERS Rise In Employment Figures The Labour member noted that there was a progressive rise in the figures of men registered for and placed in employment through the Exchange. He was informed that according to the latest available figures 1,029 ex-trainees of the Technical Training Scheme had been registered at the Employment Exchange and out of this number 388 were placed in employment. The total number of technical personnel registered at the Exchange from January, 1944, to July 31, 1944, was 2,264 and the number of those placed in employment in the same period was 537. Dr. Ambedkar and party were also shown a chart giving up-to-date information about the progress of Technical Training Scheme in Bengal. He was informed that there were 24 centres with a training capacity of 4,164 in addition to 15 civil centres with a training capacity of 2,270. Seventeen of these centres were technical institutes and two belonged to industrial undertakings. Up to July 31, 1944, 2,540 trainees who had passed out of these training centres were posted to civil industry. The Labour Member also visited the Government of India press and the central stationery office. Later in the day he addressed members of the trade Union Advisory Committee set up by the Government of Bengal and discussed the working of orders recently issued by the National Service Labour Tribunal. zz

36 * Plenary Session of Tripartite Labour Conference Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s Address Presiding over the sixth plenary session of the Tripartite Labour Conference which began in New Delhi on October 27, the Hon’ble Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Labour member, Government of India, suggested changes in the constitution of the Conference to remove organisational weaknesses discovered during its two years’ existence. He suggested that the subjects coming within the purview of the Conference should be divided into two lists : List 1 to contain all general subjects, such as terms and conditions of employment, labour legislation and questions relating to social security, and List 2 to include all concrete questions relating to labour welfare and administration of labour laws. Here is the full text of Dr. Ambedkar’s speech : “It would be a very easy and very pleasant task indeed for a Chairman if his opening address was to be nothing more than a word of welcome and a word of gratitude to the delegates assembled. Convention requires that a Chairman must say something more than that. For a Chairman of a Labour Conference such as ours, it is not an easy matter to select his theme. This is not a Conference of philosophers. He cannot therefore play the part of the pedant and get over without committing himself to anything by indulging in intellectual acrobatics which have no social import. This is not a Conference for the reconstruction of society, and the Chairman cannot fill his opening address with a disquisition on capitalism, socialism, communism and other ideologies. “This Conference is not a meeting of an ethical society, and the Chairman cannot choke it up with appeals to righteousness to stir up * Indian Information, November 15, 1944, pp. 590-97.