Vol. 10 · pages 396–400

379 MICA MINES LABOUR WELFARE FUND BILL The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : No, it will be too late. * * * The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : I did not say that I would have out Rajputana. I shall be constituting a separate committee. Diwan Chaman Lall: I did not hear my Honourable friend say that he would constitute a separate committee. I heard him say, “Some other means”. I am glad he says “some separate committee” now. As for as this measure is concerned, Rajputana is left out. The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : There welfare measures will be carried out with the aid of this fund. Diwan Chaman Lall : Will the money from Madras and Bihar be taken to help the Rajputana workers ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : We might employ some other agency, some other organisation in order to carry out the activities connected with welfare workers. The Fund will pay. * * * *The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I do not propose to take very long in replying to the criticisms which have been made against this Bill. I wish to state very briefly my opinion with regard to the points that have been raised to state very briefly my opinion with regard to the points that have been raised by three speakers. I shall first deal with the points raised by my friend Mr. Tyson. I had made no reference in the speech that I made in support of my motion with regard to the surplus stock of mica or the additional cesses that were proposed to be levied and the report of Mr. Justice Reuben. Sir, I deliberately did not touch upon these points in my speech, because I knew that these points would be raised by my friend Mr. Tyson and that I would have to reply to them. If I did not do so it was largely because I wanted to save the time of the House. Now, Sir, the position is this, that although the Labour Department and the Government of India have decided to proceed with measures of social welfare on the basis of the report made by Prof. Adarkar, the decision was taken by the Labour Department long before the report of Prof. Adarkar was made. I am glad to say that the decision taken *Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. V-No. 7, 9th April 1946, pp. 3757-59.

380 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES by the Labour Department has been fully supported by Mr. Justice Reuben in his report on the Mica industry. In fact he himself has suggested that there should be a general levy on the mica produced or exported and that about 5/12 of the receipts under the general cess should be set apart for labour welfare in the mica mines. Therefore in proceeding with this measure we are in no sense departing from the report made by Mr. Reuben. All that we have done is that instead of having a single cess as suggested by Mr. Reuben to be distributed and allocated for different purposes we have thought it necessary to have a separate fund for welfare and another fund for certain administrative measures that may be necessary for the industry as such. The reason for making this decision is obviously due to the fact that the welfare fund will have to be administered by a separate agency, while the fund for other purposes will have to be administered by a separate agency. There my Honourable friend Mr. Tyson will see that the decision of the Government of India is in full accord with the report of Mr. Reuben. With regard to, the additional cess we have, as my Honourable friend will see, fixed the cess in the initial stage at a very low figure. The figure suggested in the Reuben report is 6 per cent, ad valorem..... Mr. Geoffrey W. Tyson : Labour or General ? The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : General. This is a matter which will have to be examined at a later stage as to exactly what should be the pitch of the cess in order that the cess may produce sufficient revenue which would be adequate both for welfare and other purposes. Diwan Chaman Lall : How much does my Honourable friend expect ? The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar : Wait, I will come to that a little later. With regard to the question of surplus stock I would like to inform the House that the Government of India has been in negotiation with His Majesty’s Government for a long time over the question of the disposal of surplus stocks of mica which have been held by His Majesty’s Government as well as by the United States. I am glad to say that we have come to an agreement whereby no sort of harm will be done to the mica industry by the disposal of the surplus stock. The negotiation has reached the final stage and in a few days time a press note will be issued informing the industry and the general public

381 MICA MINES LABOUR WELFARE FUND BILL of the arrangement which has been arrived at between His Majesty’s Government and the Government of India. I might say that this arrangement has the fullest support of the mica industry itself. With regard to this measure I would like also to inform the House that this measure has been undertaken with the fullest consent of the industry itself. This question was first broached by me at a conference which was held at Kodarma on 29th April 1944, at which I presided and the representatives of the mica industry were also present, and I was glad to find that the industry as a whole responded to my suggestion for having a welfare fund. The matter was again taken up on 9th November 1945, at a conference held at Dhanbad under the chairmanship of the Coal Mines Welfare Commissioner. There again, the producers of mica accepted the suggestion. Lastly, a third conference was held on 19th December, 1945, also at Dhanbad under the chairmanship of the Secretary of the Labour Department, where a final agreement was reached between the Government and the Mica mineowners. I would also like to state that our proposal to levy a cess on the industry does not seem to have discouraged the industries from further exploiting the field of mica production and I find that during the last few months, there have been to my knowledge at any rate, three big flatations of new companies which have entered into the field of mica. I find, for instance, a new flatation under the name of Micantic and Mica Products Co., Ltd., from Madras with an authorised capital of Rs. 5 lakhs. Another is called the Saraswati Mica Industries Limited, from Calcutta with an authorised capital of Rs. 5 lakhs and I know as a matter of fact that the Christian Mining Industries Ltd., have also applied for capital issues for mica mining and for the establishment of a micanite factory. These circumstances would show that the cess has not been viewed by the industries in any tragic manner and I think that they believe that it would be possible for the industry to bear the burden of this welfare cess. Coming to the points made by my friend Diwan Chaman Lall, I must apologise for not supplying him with a copy of the report which he had asked for at some early stage. I must say that I altogether forgot about it. But I do not think that he has in any way lost in dealing with the matter in the way in which he has dealt with it. All that probably he would have done if he had the report is that he would have made a speech of double the length of what he did.

382 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES With regard to the question that he put to me as to how much revenue the cess will produce, I hestitate to give the house any definite figure and the reason is quite obvious. The production of mica has not been at a very steady figure. For instance, I have figures here from 1934 to 1944. In 1934, the value of mica produced was Rs. 6,30,525, while in 1944, it was 2,73,01,458 and there have been various figures for the different years in the intervening period. It is no use, therefore, for me to give the House any particular figure. We must allow sometime for the industry to stabilise itself in the post-war period. But taking the figure for 1944, I calculate that the cess would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of Rs. five lakhs. I quite appreciate that that is not a very large sum. Personally, if I may say so, what I am fighting for is the establishment of a principle. If later on it was found that the fund was not sufficient, it would be still open for any member of the Government who would be in charge of this to come forward and increase the cess and thereby augment the amount and carry on the measures of social welfare which otherwise would not be possible. With regard to the Mica Purchase Mission, the point to which my friend made reference, is a matter not relevant to the Bill which we are considering and I do not therefore propose to enter into the questions arising out of the Mica Purchase Mission’s activities. But I can tell my friend that so far as I know anything about it, the industrialists engaged in the production of mica in this country have not only not had any harm done to them but I am quite satisfied that they have made more than ordinary profits. My friend, Diwan Chaman Lal, spent a great length of his speech in discussing the lax administration of the Mines Act. He referred to the employment of children and of other matters relating also to employment of women. As I said, I am quite aware of this fact, and the Labour Department has on the anvil legislation to remove all the defects which have been reported upon by Mr. Adarkar in the course of his Report dealing with the workers in mica mines. And if there was time available to Government, it would have been possible even in this session, to bring forth a Bill to remove those evils. But I have no doubt that that will be done without delay. Coming to the points reaised by my friend, Mr. Ram Narayan Singh, I know he made a great point, that this was a very delayed measure.

383 MICA MINES LABOUR WELFARE FUND BILL He said that the mica industry was there, the evils have been there, Government has been here and nothing was done. If I may tell him, he only forgot to mention one tiling, that lie also was there, and for a long number of years. If he had taken the earliest opportunity to move in this matter to energize and organize the conscience of the Government and of the industrialists, I have no doubt that the delay of which he has complained would never have occurred. But I hope he will agree that it is better late than never. With regard to the question of administration of the Fund, I think the point that he made was that the administration should be left to the Provincial Governments. I am sorry to say that I cannot accept that principle. This legislation is a Central legislation. It is a legislation for which the Central Government is responsible. The Fund is raised by the Central law. The Fund is raised for a particular and specific purpose. Having regard to these circumstances, it seems to me unjustifiable on the part of the Government of India to allot the whole of this sum to the Provincial Governments, where they might be merged in the general revenues of the Province and spent, I suppose, in accordance with the wishes—I do not say whims of the Provincial Government. I am of opinion, since the responsibility for the Fund is a Central responsibility, since the Fund is for a specific purpose, and since it would be a sort of a trust which the Government of India would be administering, it is in every way desirable—not only desirable but necessary—that the Central Government from beginning to end should keep its hand on the administration of this Fund. While this is so, I should like to tell my Honourable friend that he has probably not studied the way in which , the Coal Mines Labour Welfare Fund is administered. I would therefore like to tell him some details about it because the administration of the Coal Mines Welfare Fund would be the model—indeed not only the model but the pattern—on which the administration of this Fund will be carried on. In the matter of the Coal Mines Welfare Fund, the administration is vested in a Commissioner who is generally a provincial officer, an officer lent by the Provincial Government. If I may tell him, the person who is now administering the Coal Mines Welfare Fund is an officer lent by the Bihar Government, and he should rest assure that even in the matter of the administration of the Mica Fund we shall be applying to the Bihar Government to lend us an officer