182 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
a heavy strain. I am all the more grateful to you for undertaking this task of helping Government to re-mould their Technical Training Scheme to meet the changing needs of the country.
I need hardly say how great is the importance I attach to the work of this Committee. The fact that, notwithstanding a last moment hitch, I decided to come down to Calcutta to meet you and to wish you good luck and full success in your labours, is evidence—if there is need for any—of the sincerity of what I am saying.
You have assembled here today to consider the future of our Technical Training Scheme, which was introduced as an emergency measure to cater to the technical needs of the Army and has resulted in providing India with semi-skilled man-power to an extent unheard of before.
Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of the work done in the field of technical training, I might refer briefly to the history of the Technical Training Scheme from its early stages. It was started 3½ Years ago to overcome one serious obstacle—the lack of technical personnel for the requirements of the Army. We started with a target for training about 3,000 men at a lime, but within two years we had to raise this figure to 48,000 which required setting up 394 training centres. By the end of 1942, we had already supplied 54,000 trained personnel to the Army. By June, 1944, we had turned out 75,000 trainees of whom 63,000 joined the technical branches of the Defence Services and 3,000 went to the ordnance factories. I am sure you will agree that this is no mean achievement having regard to the period within which it has been accomplished.
As I said this Technical Training Scheme was started to meet the needs of the Army which had arisen out of the war. The war, as everybody can see, is coming to a close, and the demand for technical training which came for the Army will abate.
In view of the situation that will arise at the end of the war there are two questions that arise for consideration. The first is : What are we to do for those who have already been trained, and who have been serving the Army, but who will soon be discharged from the Army and would be waiting for employment ? The second question is : What are we going to do with this Technical Training Scheme ?