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* Welfare and Social Security of Workers
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (Labour Member): Mr. President, the object of this cut motion is quite clear from the notice which has been given by the Honourable Member. He proposes to discuss the failure of the Executive Council to provide for three specific matters which he has mentioned, namely, unemployment relief, adequate deamess allowance and social security benefits. The first point of comment that I would like to make with regard to this cut motion is this that if the cut motion was a general one, I have no doubt about it that it should have stood on a different footing but as the House will see the cut motion is restricted to the employees of the Central Government. And I venture to suggest that this is a very grave fault in this cut motion. I do not know whether it is the wish and the desire of the Honourable Mover of this cut motion that the Government of India should frame its policy with regard to the three matters that he has referred to in such a manner as to create a privileged class of workers in this country on no other account except that they happen to be employed by the Central Government.
In this country Government is not the only party that employs labour. There is a large amount of labour employed by private employers. As everybody in this House would agree the Government of India while framing its policy for the betterment of labour should frame it in such a manner that it should not create a privileged class on the one hand and an under privileged class on the other. The Government of India is not merely an employer of labour. It is a State. It is a government and it has not only responsibility for those who are in the immediate employment of the Government of India. It has also a responsibility for labour in general. If therefore all these complaints which have been
- Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. III-No. 7, 11th March 1946, pp. 2138-40.