Dr Mandeep Singh Azad, Dr Manmeet Motan
The Indian Constitution that has over 90,000 words is the work of 271 men and women who were part of the constituent assembly that drafted it. By all means the Constitution serves as a powerful emancipation proclamation ending centuries of discrimination, economic, political and social exclusion for millions of people. The year of 2024 marks the 134th birth anniversary of Ambedkar, who had chaired the drafting committee of the Constituent Assembly and played a pivotal role in the drafting of the constitution. Every Indian who belongs to any gender/class/religion or from any sect of society is indebted to Baba Saheb for the reforms he brought for the upliftment of society as a whole. Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was one of the greatest personalities of India, who is popularly known as an architect of the Constitution of India. But actually, he was a multi-faceted and multi-dimensional personality whose contribution to modern India was significant and substantial. He was a rare and curious combination of a scholar, thinker, activist, writer, leader, legal luminary, constitutional expert and a champion of the downtrodden masses. In the annals of history, there are few figures whose legacy shines as brightly as that of Dr. B R Ambedkar. A visionary, a social reformer, and the chief architect of India’s Constitution, Dr. Ambedkar’s life journey is a testament to the triumph of the human spirit against all odds.
Born on April 14, 1891 in Madhya Pradesh, Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is also known as Babasaheb Ambedkar. He was a renowned social reformer, politician and jurist. Ambedkar is called the Father of Indian Constitution. He was born in a family of Mahar caste of Hindu household, which is viewed as a caste of untouchables. Ambedkar was the founder member of the Independent Labour Party. Later, the name was changed to Scheduled Castes Federation by Babasaheb and later evolved as the Republican Party of India. His party fought the 1937 Bombay election to the Central Legislative Assembly for 13 reserved and four general seats, he won 11 and 3 seats respectively. Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, who became the first law minister of India in the Congress-led Centre, was appointed as the chairman of the constitution drafting committee in 1947 and was given the responsibility of writing the country’s new constitution. American historian Granville Seward Austin has described the Constitution drafted by Ambedkar as ‘first and foremost a social document’. Upon India’s independence in 1947, the new Congress-led Government invited BR Ambedkar to serve as the nation’s first Law and Justice Minister. On 29 August, he was appointed Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, and was appointed by the Constituent Assembly to write India’s new Constitution. The draft of the constitution was prepared by a committee chaired by BR Ambedkar, an iconic lawyer, scholar and leader who had championed the cause of the down-trodden.
November 26 was commemorated as National Law Day, after a resolution by the Supreme Court Bar Association, a lawyers’ body, in 1979.A constitutional expert, BR Ambedkar had studied the constitutions of about 60 countries. The text prepared by him provided constitutional guarantees and a wide range of civil liberties for citizens including freedom of religion, the abolition of untouchability, and the outlawing of all forms of discrimination. Ambedkar argued for extensive economic and social rights for women, and won support for introducing a system of reservations of jobs in the civil services, schools and colleges for members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and Other Backward Class.While introducing the Draft, Ambedkar made a long and comprehensive speech that would become famous in post-independent India. He provided the Assembly with an overview of India’s constitutional architecture, its important features, and principles that informed various provisions. It was in this speech that Ambedkar for the first time used the term ‘constitutional morality’ – which has, in recent years, been widely invoked by academics, activists, journalists, and the legal community.
Great leaders like Karl Marx, Lenin, Gandhi, Mao and Ho Chi Minh have all necessarily been epoch-making luminaries, but so far as the case of Dr. Ambedkar s relentless struggles against the callous injustices done to the depressed, low caste people is concerned, he naturally emerged as an apostle figure. He was one of those great men, who from the cradle to the grave, had spent their life in fermenting state of insult, anguish and oppression. Dr. Ambedkar was a man of vision, conscious of the historic but difficult task of carving an egalitarian society from out of a bewildering mass of religions, communities, castes, races, languages, beliefs and practices.
Every increase in ‘Dearness Allowance’ (DA) which brings a smile on your face, should also be an occasion for you to thank Dr Ambedkar. If you have ‘Leave Benefit’, bow your head to Dr Ambedkar. If ‘Revision of Scale of Pay’ cheers you, remember Dr Ambedkar. It was Dr Ambedkar who brought in the 8-hour working day to India, bringing it down from 14 hours. He brought it in the 7th session of Indian Labour Conference in New Delhi, November 27, 1942.All workers should be grateful to Dr Ambedkar, especially women employees, as Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar framed many laws for women workers in India such as ‘Mines Maternity Benefit Act’, ‘Women Labour Welfare Fund’, ‘Women and Child Labour Protection Act’, ‘Maternity Benefit for Women Labour’, and ‘Restoration of Ban on Employment of Women on Underground Work in Coal Mines’.
Society is in a continuous process of evolution. It will take several decades for these imbalances to be rectified. Education of both men and women will lead to change in attitudes and perceptions. It is not easy to eradicate deep-seated cultural value, or alter tradition that perpetuate discrimination. Law can only be an instrument of change, that must be effectively used. So youth should come forward to make society a better place with equal rights for all
(The authors are Scientist SKUAST-Jammu and SDM Dudu Basant Garh)
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