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* Plenary Session of Tripartite Labour Conference
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s Address
Presiding over the sixth plenary session of the Tripartite Labour Conference which began in New Delhi on October 27, the Hon’ble Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Labour member, Government of India, suggested changes in the constitution of the Conference to remove organisational weaknesses discovered during its two years’ existence.
He suggested that the subjects coming within the purview of the Conference should be divided into two lists : List 1 to contain all general subjects, such as terms and conditions of employment, labour legislation and questions relating to social security, and List 2 to include all concrete questions relating to labour welfare and administration of labour laws.
Here is the full text of Dr. Ambedkar’s speech :
“It would be a very easy and very pleasant task indeed for a Chairman if his opening address was to be nothing more than a word of welcome and a word of gratitude to the delegates assembled. Convention requires that a Chairman must say something more than that. For a Chairman of a Labour Conference such as ours, it is not an easy matter to select his theme. This is not a Conference of philosophers. He cannot therefore play the part of the pedant and get over without committing himself to anything by indulging in intellectual acrobatics which have no social import. This is not a Conference for the reconstruction of society, and the Chairman cannot fill his opening address with a disquisition on capitalism, socialism, communism and other ideologies.
“This Conference is not a meeting of an ethical society, and the Chairman cannot choke it up with appeals to righteousness to stir up
- Indian Information, November 15, 1944, pp. 590-97.