Vol. 10 · pages 351–355

59 * Rehabilitation Plans The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Labour Member): Mr. President, In the course of the observations that fall from the Leader of the European Group, he said that they were not quite sure whether the resettlement and rehabilitation plans of the Government of India were proceeding apace in order to meet with the volume of demobilization that was going on. Sir, it is for this purpose that I rise now in order to give the House the requisite information on this subject. Sir, the subject of resettlement is divided into two parts : settlement on land and settlement in industry. The question of the settlement on land is a matter which has been left for the Provincial Governments to carry on. The reason for leaving settlement on land to the Provinces is, I think, quite obvious to the House. The land, by constitutional law, is the subject matter of the Provincial Government. Obviously no matter what argument there may be in support of the position that the whole subject matter of resettlement should be under one Central Government, that argument could not dislodge the opposite argument which is founded on the fact that the land is a Provincial subject. It is, therefore, by mutual agreement that that question has been left to the Provincial Government. The only subject that the Government of India deals with is resettlement in industry. It is on this subject that I propose to give some account to the House. The subject of resettlement has been placed under the charge of the Directorate-General of Resettlement and Employment. The department or branch is divided into seven different categories ; (1) Employment Exchange, (2) Technical Training, (3) Vocational Training, (4) Rehabilitation of the Disabled Soldier, (5) Canvassing employment for ex-servicemen and the disabled, (6) Follow-up service, (7) Statistics of Discharges and Releases. * Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. Ill-No. 4, 5th March 1946, pp. 1898-1900.

335 REHABILITATION PLANS The functions relating to canvassing of employment for exservicemen and the disabled soldier as well as the next function of what is called ‘follow-up’ service and that of statistics of discharges and releases, are obviously so necessary and so selfexplanatory that I do not think it is necessary for me to spend any time to explain why these services have been instituted and what their purpose is. I will therefore leave these subjects for Honourable Members to study from this book which has been issued by the Government of India in the Labour Department. A copy of it is in the Library and if any Honourable Member desires to have a copy for his personal use, I shall be very happy to circulate them. Sri M. Ananthasayanam Ayyangar : What is the title ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : It is “ The Directorate-General of Resettlement and Employment “. Babu Ram Narayan Singh : Please circulate it. The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Copies of it were given to the Labour Advisory Committee the last time when it met. The only question on which detailed explanation is necessary is in regard to the Employment Exchanges, Technical Training, Vocational Training and Rehabilitation. I will take each item seriatim. With regard to technical training, the position is this. The Government of India have certain technical centres for technical training. In those centres they have reserved at present 14,000 seats for demobilized personnel. The training, the maximum period of it, will be for one year and the number of trades that will be taught in those technical training centres will be about 48, the detailed list of which is given on page 55 as Appendix VII of this booklet. Then, Sir, with regard to vocational training : it deals with training in agriculture, in dairy farming, in cottage industries, in clerical and commercial occupations. The scheme is at present prepared and is sent round to the Provincial Governments for their approval. The proposal is that in these vocational training centres 20,000 scats will be reserved for training in occupations relating to agriculture and 50,000 in other occupations. Coming to the question of Rehabilitation. This matter is shared between the War Department and the Labour Department, and the reason for such sharing will be obvious. The rehabilitation of a soldier,

336 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES who has received injuries in the course of the war obviously falls into two stages. The first stage is the medical stage where questions of healing the wound and post-hospital rehabilitation are of primary importance. Obviously, the soldier being in the service of the War Department, this matter has been left to the War Department to deal with. After he has come out of the first stage of rehabilitation, which is the medical stage, he is handed over to the Labour Department and the Labour Department then deals with him. For the purpose of dealing with the rehabilitation of a soldiar, the Labour Department has two sorts of centres opened in this country. One is called the basic Centre. The accommodation provided is for 5,000 such persons. The second sort is the special training centre. There the accommodation provided is for 3,000 persons. The purpose of the Basic Centre is to test the aptitude of the man. What are his aptitude ? What is it that he is likely to be the special training centre where he is taught some occupation which is most suitable having regard to the particular sort of injury that he has received. The Labour Department plans to open altogether six centres for dealing with soldiers requiring rehabilitation. They have opened one at Jaladi near Bangalore and they propose to open another very soon in Aundh near Poona. I will now come to the question of Employment Exchanges, which of course is the most important part of the resettlement plan. With regard to the Employment Exchange, the labour Department has come to the conclusion that it would be enough to start with 71 such Employment Exchanges. They have today on the ground set up 38 such Exchanges and before long, they hope to complete the maximum number they have decided upon. Now, Sir, I know that there is a certain amount of criticism both from members of the House as well as from the public outside that the question of setting up of Employment Exchanges is not progressing as rapidly as it should and I should like to meet that criticism by submitting to the House certain facts which would show why the labour Department cannot rush the starting of these Employment Exchanges. The one thing which is necessary to remember is that unless and until an employment exchange is managed by a man who has had training, it is bound to fail. Let it be remembered that Employment Exchanges are a very specialised sort of work—the most specialised type of work.

337 REHABILITATION PLANS An Employment Exchange would completely fail if it were placed in the hands of a man who is not trained for the job. Therefore, before starting any Employment Exchange, it is necessary to give a certain amount of training to a man who is to be in charge of the Employment Exchange. That is, therefore, one difficulty why it has not been possible to rush in the matter of starting our Employment Exchanges. Mr. P. J. Griffiths: Where is the training done ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I am just coming to that. We have therefore established a training centre in Delhi. It is a sort of a school in the charge of Mr. Jones, whose services have been lent to us by the Labour Department in England. He runs this training centre. In that centre training is given in all aspects of the employment of an Employment Exchange. Prof. N. G. Ranga : How many are you training at a time ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I am sorry I cannot give you the exact figure. These books will give the information. I believe 35 at a time. Prof. N. G. Ranga : How long do you take to recruit them ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : The difficulty arises from the fact that all these posts to be filled on the recommendation of the Federal Public Service Commission and the minimum time that the Federal Public Service Commission takes is somewhere about three months. I do not know whether—and I am not prepared to say that the time taken by the Federal Public Service Commission is unduly long. (Interruption by Prof. Ranga) I am merely stating the reason why it has not been possible to start them soon. The first difficulty is that it takes a pretty long time to have a man recruited through the Federal Public Service Commission. Secondly, after he has been recruited, we have to give him training. All this therefore takes time and I do not regard the time taken as wasted. Another point which people, who criticise the Labour Department for not having set down all the Exchanges, raise is this. The Labour Department have not got all the Exchanges on the ground. This does not mean that there is no organisation on the ground which is able to deal with the subject. As might be known, there is already a Recruiting and Employment Bureau in the War Department which has been doing this work and the policy of the Government is that in course of time

338 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES this organisation should cease to deal with this work and the whole work should go over to the Labour Department. The Labour Department, while it goes on increasing its Exchanges also goes on taking over the work that is at present dealt with by this recruiting organisation in the War Department. Consequently, the fact today is that there are really two different organisations working in full cooperation, one in the Labour Department and another in the War Department and in course of time we hope that all the work that is now carried on by the recruiting organisation will come to the exchanges and we shall than be able to set up a full-fledged and competent organisation to deal with this question of resettlement. Sir, I hope the House will be satisfied that the Labour Department is doing its best in the circumstances in which it has been placed. I would just like to say one word. I think it will be appreciated that this question of resettlement came to us as matter of great surprise in view of the fact that the war closed before we expected. However, I am quite certain that whatever is possible to be done within the short space of time that is available to us is being done and I have no doubt that the soldier who is demobilised will find this organisation of great use to him in meeting the difficulties which he is confronted with in civil employment. zz