THE WAR INJURIES (COMPENSATION INSURANCE) BILL 91
*Mr. President (The Honourable Sir Abdur Rahim) : Amendment moved:
“ That for clause 6 of the Bill the following be substituted :—
‘ 6 This Act shall apply to all those workmen to whom the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923, applies ’ ”.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : Sir, I am afraid I have to oppose this amendment. I think my Honourable friend Mr. Joshi will realise that my opposition is not based upon any want of sympathy for workmen.
Mr. N. M. Joshi: I did not say that.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar: I think my Honourable friend Mr. Joshi will realise that if his amendment is adopted, practically there would be a serious limitation imposed upon the number of workmen who would be entitled to the benefit of this Bill. First of all, Sir, as Mr. Joshi said, we must go rather cautiously in this matter because his Act presupposes that there is a body of organised employers on which this liability can be imposed. It is a question of collecting premia, and you cannot collect premia from people who are merely walking in the streets. You must have some organisation on which you can fasten this liability and one has therefore to go very cautiously in including the number of workmen that could be included in this Bill. The second difficulty that I feel is this, that really speaking the acceptance of the amendment of Mr. Joshi would not enlarge the category of workmen which are included at present in this Bill. Sir, I have very carefully examined the Workmen’s Compensation Act and I find that there are altogether nine different categories of workmen to which that Act applies. Comparing the categories of workmen to which we propose to apply this Act with the categories of workmen to which the Workmen’s Compensation Act applies, I find that there is only one difference. The Workmen’s Compensation Act applies to buildings and public works. That is the only category of workmen to which the present Bill does not apply. On others, both the Bills—the Workmen’s Compensation Act as well as this Bill—are on a parity. Then the other difference is this. If we apply the Workmen’s Compensation Act, as it stands, obviously that will bring in with it the definition of workmen which is given in the Workmen’s Compensation
- Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. III, 13th August 1943, p. 710.