394 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Other items discussed by the Committee were the desirability of Central legislation for unregulated factories, amendments to the Trade Disputes Act, the extent of unemployment likely to occur in industries, the attitude of Employment Exchanges during strikes or lock-outs and the Mine Workers’ Charter proposed by the I.L.O.
Representatives of the Central and Provincial Governments, Indian States, and employers’ and employees’ organisations attended the meeting. Lala Kripa Narain, Mr. Shanti Lal Mangaldas Mr. Bhagwandas C. Mehta, the Hon’ble Mr. H.D. Townend and Rai Bahadur Syamnandan Sahay were the delegates on behalf of the employers and Messrs. N.M. Joshi, N.V. Phadke, V.S. Karnik, A.K. Mukerjee and R.R. Bhole represented the workers.
*SOCIAL SECURITY OF LABOUR
Rege Committee Reports
Data relating to all aspects of labour conditions embodied in 35 reports running to nearly two million words have been complied by the Labour Investigation Committee appointed by the Government of India on February 12, 1944, with Mr. D.V. Rege I.C.S., as Chairman and Mr. S. R. Deshpande, Dr. Ahmad Mukhtar and Prof. B. P. Adarkar as members. Twenty of these reports were placed on the table of the House in the Central Legislative Assembly on April 9, by the Hon’ble Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, Labour Member.
The data collected by the Committee relate to the wages and earnings, employment, housing and social conditions of labour in 38 selected industries, namely : Mining —Coal, Manganese, Gold, Mica, Iron Ore and Salt: Plantations —Tea, Coffee and Rubber: Factories —Cotton, Jute, Silk, Woolen, Mineral Oil, Dockyard, Engineering, Cement, Matches, Paper, Carpet weaving, Coirmatting, Tanneries and Leather Goods Manufacture, Potteries, Printing Presses, Glass Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works, Shellac, Bidi-making, Mica Splitting, Sugar, Cotton, Ginning and Baling and Rice Mills ; Transport —Tramways and Buses and Non-gazetted Railway Staff; and Other Types —Port Labour, Municipal Labour, Central P.W.D., and Rickshaw Pullers. This is expected to help the future planning of social security for labour and legislation by the Government.
*Indian Information, April 15, 1946, p. 568.