L. A. DEBATES (CENTRAL) QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 847
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*** Arrangements for Care of Children of Women** Miners
- Shrimati K. Radha Bai Subbarayan : Will the Honourable the Labour Member please state :
(a) what the specific arrangements are for the care of infants and children of women miners working inside mines and on the surface in all mining areas, and under whose supervision these arrangements are carried out;
(b) the facilities provided for nursing mothers working inside mines to feed their infants at regular intervals ; and
(c) whether the arrangements referred to in (a) and (b) have been approved by any medical authority ; and, if so, by whom ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : (a) No specific arrangements have so far been made, but at a few mines creches with female attendants have been provided and in some collieries child clinics exist where milk is distributed to miners’ children. The question of requiring provision of creches is at present under the consideration of Government.
(b) Children are not allowed underground and therefore no special facilities are required underground. Mothers are not allowed underground within one month of delivery. Information as to facilities allowed to other mothers to come up to feed their children is being called for.
(c) No.
Shrimati K. Radha Bai Subbarayan : May I ask, Sir, if the Government will prohibit women from working underground in mines where these arrangements have not been made until Government consider this question ?
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : I have not followed the question.
Shrimati K. Radha Bai Subbarayan : Will Government take definite steps to have proper arrangements for the care of children and for enabling women to come up to the surface to feed their children ? Surely infants require to be fed even after they are a month old ?
- Legislative Assembly Debates (Central), Vol. I of 1945, 21st February 1945, p. 609.