STATE’S OBLIGATIONS TO LABOUR 295
relations to the conditions of India while the I.L.O. Conventions are general in character.
“The fact, however, remains that there is very little outstanding liability on account of the Commission and the magnitude of our liability on account of the Convention is great. Among the Conventions not ratified, there are some which are very important and it behoves us to examine these most carefully and raise our labour standards, in so far as national conditions allow, to standards laid down internationally
“This brief survey will, I hope, enable you to see what is outstanding in the matter of legislation. I need hardly say that this debt we shall have to discharge. I am sure you will agree with me when I say that we do not wish to escape it. Permit me to say that we cannot escape it. World public opinion will not allow us to escape it.
“If I have made a point of our honouring our liability it is because one hears in this country many misgivings being expressed about the necessity and urgency of labour legislation. There is always somebody to ask us to copy the British example. It is said that the British people have waited for a century, before they had their present Labour Code. There arc others who urge that it would be unfair to put the cost of labour legislation on Indian Industries, which are at present in an infant stage, and point to the example of Russia where the working class was forced to accept very low standards in order to enable industries to grow. One also hears it said that the administrative machinery necessary for enforcing labour legislation is not in existence in India and that, therefore, it is useless to enact laws which must remain a dead letter. There is also the plea, commonly raised, that India is a poor country and that it cannot afford the luxury of high standards of labour.
Labour Legislation
“I am not sure that these arguments will satisfy world opinion. Far from accepting them as good and valid reasons for holding back labour legislation of which we arc in arrears, labour is sure to regard them as so many excuses.
“Labour may well say that the fact that the British took 100 years to have a proper code of labour legislation is no argument that we should also in India take 100 years. History is not to be studied merely with a view to know how well to imitate the mistakes of other countries.