PR ENGLISH SHORTHAND DICTATIONS: ENGLISH SHORTHAND DICTATION-218

Hon. Chairman, Sir, I think the honourable lady who moved the cut motion has forgotten what the view of the All-India Women’s Conference was on this subject. I should like to explain it to the House. The Government of India had taken certain steps with a view to close the employment of women underground. As the House will remember, the Government of India had laid down a decreasing proportion, so that according to the programme women would have ceased to work in coal mines. This was long before there was any talk about a convention. What was the attitude of the All-India Women’s Conference? I find that this matter was taken up for consideration by the All-India Women’s Conference in¹²⁰ its session held two years ago. According to the report which I have in my hand, the All-India Women’s Conference¹⁴⁰ set up a committee to consider this question and I would like to read only two short sentences which contain¹⁶⁰ the view of the All-India Women’s Conference about the action of the Government of India. The report first gives the advantages and then gives the disadvantages.

Sir, it is true that when this matter was considered by the All-India Women’s Conference at their session held last year, they came to the conclusion that they would support the International Convention which was passed, in spite of the fact that they saw grave objections to the course pursued by the Government of India.²⁴⁰ Now, Sir, I claim that this view that the All-India Women’s Conference took up last year, which was so different from its view expressed two years ago, was due to the passing of the Convention. I am sure that²⁸⁰ if the International Convention had not been passed last year, the All-India Women’s Conference would have continued to agitate against the decision of the Government of India to eliminate women from coal mines. I do not want to say that³²⁰ there are any sinister motives for the change of front on the part of the All-India Women’s Conference in this matter but I would like to say that I am not prepared to believe that within the ten years that³⁶⁰ have elapsed there has been such a revolution in the moral and political conscience of the people of this country that they are not prepared to tolerate the action which will be annulled as soon as the emergency vanishes.

Sir, I have been told that after all, the number of women employed in coal mines is only 15,000 and that⁴²⁰ they have not been able to produce more coal. The question has been asked as to why we are keeping these women underground. There are three reasons for it. First of all, it has got to be realised that in the situation in which we are placed, the woman underground cannot be treated as a single unit by herself.⁴⁸⁰ She is a potential. The first consequence will be that if she leaves the coal mine, the coal cutter will also leave the coal mine and there would be a further deterioration in the situation. The second consequence will be that if she does not work, there will be more absenteeism in the coal mines. Thirdly, there would be a further reduction in the number of coal cutters because some cutters will have to do the work of loaders, a work⁵⁶⁰ which women now do. As a matter of fact, the argument that has been sometimes urged, that the women have not been able to produce more coal, is not correct.

As my honourable friend probably knows, last year the Government⁶⁰⁰ of India imposed a cess on coal, called the Coal Mines Welfare Cess. It was with regard to the administration of this coal fund that the Coal Mines Welfare Officer was appointed. The Coal Mines Welfare Fund is administered⁶⁴⁰ by a committee. The committee is constituted of equal representatives of employers, workers, and the State Governments. The committee is chaired by the Secretary of the Labour Department. The Committee is more or less an autonomous body. It has its own budget which is prepared by the Coal Commissioner. It is submitted to the Committee and the Coal Mines Welfare Commissioner⁷⁰⁰ is the executive authority over this expenditure. All questions of welfare, such as malaria, water supply, medicine and other matters⁷²⁰ relating to coal welfare are considered by this Committee.

With regard to the question of the Labour Commissioner, I think my friend will know that all the State Governments have got Labour Commissioners. Under them, they have their own conciliation officers and other officers looking after labour. It was felt in the Government of India that as the Government of India has also got certain undertakings for which it is responsible, it was desirable that the Government of India⁸⁰⁰ should also have a similar organisation under its control to look after the welfare of workers engaged in these Central undertakings. Consequently, we have established this organisation. At the head of the organisation is an officer called the Chief Labour Commissioner⁸⁴⁰ with the Government of India. The rest of India is divided into three different areas and for each area there will be one Deputy Labour Commissioner.

I think my honourable friend would like to know that we have taken advantage of this new organisation in order to amalgamate the work of Central undertakings along with the work which was originally done by the Conciliation Officer of Railways and the Supervisor of Railway labour. All this has now been amalgamated and centralised. The Labour Welfare Officers who were working individually in different areas and were reporting directly to the Government of India will now be under these different Labour Commissioners. Similarly, the Railway Inspectors who were also working separately under⁹⁶⁰ the Railway Conciliation Officer and doing the work of checking up the Payment of Wages Act and the hours of⁹⁸⁰ labour are also now being brought under the new scheme and we have made a consolidated scheme.

With regard to the point relating to the Labour Investigation Committee, I think it will be recalled that last year or rather the year before that, the Tripartite Labour Conference passed a resolution that the Government of India should undertake social security measures. It was felt that before any such scheme could be formulated, it would be necessary to have a fact-finding committee which would investigate all questions, such as housing, wages, sanitary conditions and other data affecting the welfare of the workers,¹⁰⁸⁰ and that after the facts were found by the Committee, the Government of India should have another Committee in order to formulate such social security measures as can be based upon the data that were found by this Investigation Committee.¹¹²⁰ This Investigation Committee has now been working for nearly six or seven months and its report is promised sometime in June or July next. After the report is received, measures will be taken to constitute the second part of the enquiry and these facts will be placed before them according to the decision of the Tripartite Conference.

The second counter-part of this Investigation Committee would be a committee represented by employers, employees and members of State Governments. With regard to the¹²⁰⁰ other question, namely, unskilled labour supply, the position is this. It was found out that various contractors were competing among themselves and paying much higher wages than what the market rate permitted in order to snatch away labour to their own contracts and to leave other contractors high and dry. The result was that while there was a superfluity of¹²⁶⁰ labour in some parts, there was great shortage of labour in other parts where military works found it extremely difficult¹²⁸⁰ to find the necessary amount of labour. Consequently, the Government of India decided that it was necessary to ration man-power and therefore the first step that they took was to appoint this committee which is known as Unskilled Labour Supply Committee.

To this Committee, every contractor has to make an application, if he wants to take away labour from an area where he is not working. It is only on the certificate given by the Supply Committee that he can go to some other area to tap labour from that area. There are various stations where these labour depots are kept. At the head is a contractor who manages this scheme. I cannot at this stage give my honourable friend¹⁴⁰⁰ all the details under the scheme. But if he is more interested in the matter, he can put down a short notice question which I am prepared to accept and give information on this subject.

As the House is aware,¹⁴⁴⁰ we have already got the Miners Maternity Benefit Act. This Bill seeks to amend that Act and the reasons why this amendment has become necessary can be very briefly stated. When the original Act was passed, it was intended to cover cases of maternity benefit for women working on surface. We had no such case as we have now of women working underground. Unfortunately, for the reasons which I have explained to the House, we had to permit women to work underground in coal mines. As I have stated, that provision is of a temporary character and I hope and trust that the Government will be able to re-impose the ban very soon. But notwithstanding the fact that the lifting of the ban is of a temporary character, it is felt that in view of the criticism made in this House as well as outside, it is necessary to amend the Act in order to provide for cases of pregnant¹⁶⁰⁰ women working underground. It is to give some benefit to the women working underground that this amendment is intended.¹⁶²⁰