L. A. DEBATES (CENTRAL) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 765
195
*** Employment of Women for Underground Work** in Collieries
702. Mr. K. S. Gupta : (a) Will the Honourable the Labour Member please state whether the shortage of coal is the reason for the Government of India to lift the ban on women working underground ? If so, have Government taken into consideration that the price of human life is more precious than the production of coal ?
(b) Does the Honourable Member know that such permission would not be tolerated for a moment in England or elsewhere ?
(c) Is it not a fact that decent conditions of life and adequate wages are not available for workers in the Indian collieries ?
(d) Is it not a fact that scientific extraction of coal is not available in India as in the United Kingdom and the United States of America ?
(e) Does the Honourable Member know that subsidence of earth and explosions of coal gas are more frequent in Indian collieries than elsewhere for want of adequate precautions and existence of primitive methods adopted in extraction of the ore ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : (a) The answer to both parts of the question is in the affirmative.
(b) Women are not allowed underground in coalmines in Great Britain. I have no information regarding other countries.
(c) As I stated in answer to the Honourable Member’s Question No. 274 on the 1st March, 1944, working conditions in mines have not been very satisfactory. Every effort is being made to see that conditions of life arc improved and that adequate wages are paid.
(d) Mechanisation in Indian coal mines is not so far advanced as in the United Kingdom and the United States.
(e) Collapses or subsidence are not more frequent in Indian mines than in other countries where the coal scams are near the surface. Gas explosions are not so frequent in Indian mines as in coalmines of most other countries. Safety precautions taken in this country compare favourable with those adopted in any other country.
- Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. III of 1944, 30th March 1944, pp. 1745-46.