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* Lifting of Ban on Employment of Women on Underground Work in Coal Mines
The Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar (Labour Member) : Sir, I am happy that our Lady Member thought it fit to bring forth this adjournment motion. I am glad because it gives me an opportunity to explain to the House a matter which has been weiging very heavily on my mind. I do like to say at the very outset in order that the house may understand my feelings in the matter that I do regard this decision of the Government of India as a great misfortune. I am not happy about it. All that I am saying is that given the circumstances in which the Government of India was forced, I do not regard that this is a mistake on our part. I think the House will understand the distinction that I am making.
The debate to which I have listened has rather impressed me that the lines on which most of the Honourable Members have spoken have been mostly of a humanitarian character. They have been, in my humble judgment, greatly removed from what I would call the plane of reality. And when I speak in this debate, I propose to stick to what I call the realism of the situation. I would also like to say that many points have been brought in during the course of the debate as though they were the points on which the decision of the House was called for. I would particularly say that reference was made to the wages prevalent in the coal mines. Reference was also made to the prevalence of unfair welfare conditions in the coal mines and I shall have something to say about them in the course of the observations that I will make. But I think I am justified in saying that having regard to the terms of the motion,
*Legislative Assembly Debates, Vo. I, 8th February 1944, p. 131.