294 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
State’s Liabilities
“Among these social and economic problems, this Conference will be concerned with the most important of them, namely, the problems effecting the welfare of labour and the relations of Capital to Labour. In order that the Conference may know what work lies before it, I think it would be desirable if I use this occasion to enter upon what might be called ‘stock-taking’, so that all of us may have a correct estimate of what has been done and what remains to be done in the field which is ours.
“For the purposes of this stock-taking, I would like to begin with our liabilities first. Our liabilities are derived from two different quarters. Firstly, they are derived from the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Labour which reported in the year
- The second source of our liabilities is the Conventions of the International Labour Organisation of which India has been made a member from the very beginning.
“ The Royal Commission on Labour made 357 recommendations— a formidable total which serves to show how far behind India was in 1929 as compared with other countries in matters of labour legislation. Of these 357 recommendations 133 (in whole or in part) involved legislation. Of these 133, no less than 126 were accepted by the Government. Only seven were rejected out of 126 which were accepted, 106 have generally been given effect to. Only 20 arc still outstanding. Of these 20, 10 relate to legislation for workshops for which discretionary powers already exist with the Provincial Governments under section 5 of the Factories Act. Really speaking, there are only 10 recommendations which are outstanding. Our liability on this account is therefore very small.
I.L.O. Conventions
“Turning to the second source of our liabilities, it will be noticed that the I.L.O. has between the years 1919 and 1943 passed altogether 63 Conventions on various matters effecting labour. Of these, India has ratified only 14. India has yet to ratify 49 Conventions.
“You will notice how the balance-sheet stands. Our Royal Commission account is better than our I.L.O. account. That is of course likely as the Royal Commission recommendations have specific