APPENDIX Q-
COMPULSORY PHYSICAL WORK FOR
 STUDENTS
 

In August 1949 the Hon'ble Prime Minister invited the attention of the Education Ministry to the report of the Sub-Committee (on General Education) of the National Planning Committee on Compulsory Labour Service and asked them to consider the question of insisting on some type of manual work before a degree is given. Almost simultane- ously he addressed a similar communication to the Provincial Premiers and Chief Ministers of States. The question was accordingly studied in the Ministry of Education and a note was sent to the Hon'ble Prime Minister (appended), who commended a further consideration of the subject.

Hon'ble the Prime Minister in his note dated 7-8-1949 raised the question of some manual or technical work as a precondition to the grant of a diploma or degree to Indian students. He suggested that a Matriculation or Degree student should, in addition to passing the examination. be required to do some kind of work for six months in field factory, Office or elsewhere, and desired that the Ministry of Education should examine the question in its different aspects and prepare a note on the subject.

The delay in the submission of this not is regretted but it could not be avoided as we had to collect information,about the practice in other countries. Some literature was available in our libraries but selection of the books and sifting of the material took time, especially in view of the shortage of staff under which the Ministry has been working for some time past.

Before making specific proposals to implement the suggestions of H.P.M.. the following facts are submitted for his consideration.

The first is that most of the work of this type in foreign countries has been undertaken either as a measure of (a) unemployment benefit; or (b) aid Go farmers and other employers of labour who suffer from periodic shortage of labour at the harvest season or emergency construction work or other period of pressure; or (c) military or semi-military training.

We have not yet had in India any definite scheme to cope with the problem of unemployment. State intervention in the field of employ- ment has in the past been restricted to times of scarcity and famine. Public works, such as construction of roads, dams, or buildings have beer. undertaken as relief measure and have been addressed primarily to unskilled labourers. So far as India is concerned the question of shortage of labour does not, therefore, arise. In fact, whether for farm labour or construction work or industrial undertaking, we are faced with a problem of under-employment Bringing of a large number of students on the labour makes may, therefore, create complications and also rouse resentment among the working classes who may fear that this is a measure designed to lower their needs.

A second consideration is that unless very careful precautionary Measures are adopted, there is a risk that such compulsory labour ser- vice by students may lead to the growth of authoritarian and militaristic tendencies. The experience of Nazi Germany is extremely instructive, for there the Labour Camps demonstrated that, however democratic in their origin or intention the camps may be, they can be taken over and

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immediately transformed into effective propaganda institutions for ex- tremes of authoritarianism. The youth-camps are isolated from fami- lite. schools and other traditional, social and religious influences. Of those who go into the camps, many are discontented, dissatisfied or thwarted, while others are without specific interests and goals: They therefore, tend to welcome leadership that supplies or promises to supply these wants.The German camps were organised with a view to preparing young men or women for an authoritarian regime by minimising the importance of the individual in the development of a mass programme or regimentation.

A third point worthy of note is that these camps, have, on the whole, been more successful with young men than with women. This has been due to insufficient funds and feeling that first consideration should be given to the projects for men and the fact that camp programmes are not as well adopted to young women as to young men. Another reason has been the difficulty to find a suitable number of

qualified leaders for women camps.

Another factor which has to be remembered is that the work done by such student volunteers or conscripts is likely to be more expensive than similar work done by paid labour. The experience of the United States and other countries shows that contract labour can do the same work at about two-thirds of the cost.. The camps cannot, therefore, be justified on the basis of work alone : their real justification is their educational value in preparing the future citizens of the country.

We have also to remember that in India, families have often to stint themselves for the higher education of the children. In some cases, such higher education even involves the family in debt. As soon as therefore, the student completes his education, the family looks up to him as an immediate sources of income. This requires that the period of manual or other work prescribed for the student should be the minimum possible. It is also desirable that student should earn a small income during this period.

If these considerations are kept in mind, it seems clear that organisation of our young men for purposes of manual or technical work must be on a voluntary basis. The dangers inherent in compulsion are borne out by the experience of Germany, Austria and Poland. Nor does such compulsion seem necessary. If Government announce that such manual or other work is necessary or even desirable condition for em- ployment under Government, students will be induced to take up such service on a voluntary basis. Such voluntary arrangement is also likely to be of advantage on two other considerations. Compulsion may arouse suspicion in the public mind and a sense of resentment and opposition among the students on whom it is imposed. The number on a voluntary basis is likely to be large enough but on a basis of compulsion, it is bound to be unmanageable in view of our limited resources in personnel, finance and Organisation.

The benefits that would accrue from a system of such national service of youngmen, if practicable scheme can be worked out are im- mense. It would, as pointed out in Hon'ble Prime Minister's note, break down the resistance against manual work among our educated classes. It would also be of positive value in bridging the time-gap between the completion of education and the taking up of regular employment. The time spent in labour service would also serve as an orientation period which would keep students away from futile activities and, engaging them in useful occupation, develop in them a spirit of discipline and corporate action.

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Camps would also help to divert young people who are thinking of going to colleges and universities where there is already a surplus of "intellectuals" into other types of training programmes for other

fields or activities. It would provide students with opportunities to become acquainted with conditions in economically backward areas and supplement academic work in colleges and universities by practical experience. Last but not least such labour camps would provide practical training for citizenship in a democratic state by permitting the participants in the camps to have a large measure of self- government.

The value of such labour service is thus undeniable, but in the light of what has been stated above, the difficulty is to work out a practical scheme. It is comparatively easier in the case of engineering and technical students for whom a certain amount of manual work is already enjoined. The All-India Council of Technical Education and the Scientific Man-Power Committee have also recommended such practical and vocational training as a condition precedent to the grant of their diplomas or degrees. A scheme is now under consideration by which industries and business organisations may be requested to recruit students and train them in order to prepare them for undertaking independent responsibility. Such an arrangement would certainly increase the efficiency of the students and enable them to supervise industrial and other work more effectively, when they later take up positions of authority. It would also tend to increase the level of efficiency among the actual labourers through the presence of persons with a higher academic and intellectual potential among them. Such student apprentices or workers may be initially less efficient than the artisans or workmen but once they have familiarised themselves with the processes and operations of the industry of trade, there is no doubt that their higher general education should enable them, to become more skilled operators than those who do things simply by rote.

We have already accepted the principle of setting up regional committees of the All-India Council of Technical Education. With some development, these committees could be expected to :

(a) assess total strength of student technicians who will have to undergo every year this type of manual work;

(b) contact industry and commerce for arranging their training;

(c) allocate students according to their suitability and trends of profession;

(d) arrange for the necessary payments to students;

(e) exercise general supervision during the period students are undergoing such training and give them necessary directions ;

(f) issue certificates on completion of the period of training; and

(g) do any other work connected with the Scheme.

The position is altogether different with students in the arts or pure science subjects. They form the last majority of our students, and any organisation to deal with them must be on a colossal scale. When to this is added the fact that a large proportion, if not the majority of them. live in rural or semi-rural areas, the task attains an even greater

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magnitude. The experience of Soviet Russia is instructive. We have no information about conditions after 1939, but the pre-war reports show that in urban areas the polytechnic character of the education and the linkng of schools with a so-called mother-enterprise-a textile plant of a meteorological unit or a coal mine, etc.-made the relation between studies and actual processes of work close, but even vocational guidance was not available to students in rural areas. If the Soviet Union with its totalitarian regime could not set up the necessary machinery, it is obvious that it would be still more difficult to do so in India.

The difficulties in the Indian situation have been already indicated Under-employment of vast masses of people, the more expensive character of the amateur labour of students and other young persons, the absence of any schemes which could usefully employ students from schools and colleges, the necessity to maintain and perhaps also pay a small salary or allowance in view of the poverty of the pupils, and most serious of all, the risks of militarism and dictatorship inherent in amassing together large numbers of young people isolated from families, schools, and other social and religious checks- are factors which cannot be overlooked, except at grave peril. We have also to remember that such student workers would always remain novices, for the groups would be changing every year and each new group would have to be trained afresh. For all these reasons, it would be not only uneconomical but perhaps impracticable to ask the general body of students to undertake a programme of either rural or urban development except on a purely voluntary and extremely limited basis.

There is however, one respect in which students can render an im- portant national service and that is in the field of education, using the term in its broadest sense. This would include teaching in schools taking part in adult literacy campaigns, participating in social education programmes for improving health and hygiene, training in crafts and cottage industries, developing a civic sense and generally educating the masses for citizenship in a welfare state. This would also largely satisfy the condition about manual work on which Hon'ble Prime Minister has laid such stress. Basic and Social Education entail physical labour not only in the craft which is used as a medium, but also because of their programmes of house and village

cleaning, improvement of local sanitation, development of kitchen- gardening and agriculture and building of improved houses, kitchens and latrines. Hon'ble Minister for Education in his speech to the all India Education Conference in January, 1948 stressed this point, and has since then repeated drawn the attention of educationists and legislators to the need of utilising our students for our programme of national education.

That students have not yet been utilised for the purpose is due mainly to the delay in the implementation of our education programmes. It was proposed to start our basic and. social education programmes from this year, but- at first the Basic and now even Social Education programme is in danger of being deferred. Such postponement is fraught with many risks, but, apart from other considerations, delay in this matter would remove the only field in which students can be usefully employed in national service on the lines suggested by Hon'ble Prime Minister. As soon as the programmes are put into operation, the demand for teachers will so increase that the only way of meeting the demand would be to press all our educated young men and women into service. Even conscription may be used for the purpose, provided it leaves out school-boys and is limited only to the collegiate stage. Obligation of service for a period of six months or a year would, in that case, be imposed only

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on students proceeding to a degree or some other post-secondary dip- loma. It may be pointed out that Czechoslovakia which has recently made six months' work in industry, building programme or agriculture, obligatory for all who seek to enter administrative, clerical or technical posts, has limited the application of the order only to students who have completed the secondary school course.

Other types of specific work projects like a definite building programme for house or road construction, or helping in some national service like Grow More Food, or flood, famine, or medical relief in times of stress and emergency could be undertaken only on a very limited scale and on a purely voluntary basis. An Organisation on the lines of the American Civilian Conservation Corps may be set up for the purpose and entrusted with :

(a) the overall estimate of the number of young persons likely to be effected by such scheme and their regional distributions;

(b) the planning of experiments and programmes which will meet the different requirements of such young persons;

(c) The creation of the necessary spirit of service through publications, conferences and otherwise;

(d) the Organisation of youth hostels and youth camps to carry out the programmes; and

(e) any other work which may be necessary for achieving these ends.

A short self-contained note is also enclosed which gives a report on work done on similar lines in different countries. It is regretted that all the information, we have, relates to the pre-war period. We are trying to collect later figures from our foreign missions. There are, however certain difficulties, for example, when we asked for literature dealing with the Organisation of the camps in pre-war Germany, we were told that the literature on the subject "has been condemned outright and anyone showing even academic curiosity will be suspected."

It is therefore submitted that we should aim at using only students who have completed the school course and are going up for post-secondary education. For the present, we should confine ourselves to a programme of only Basic and Social Education. In this field also, work should preferably be on a voluntary basis but an inducement for such voluntary service may be offered to students joining the programme by laying down that they will be preferred for all Government employment and even have a proportion of such appointments reserved for them. Most, if not all, of the work should, however, be done through the Provinces with the assistance of Universities, Boards and Inspectorates. While Government may generally initiate the programmes, private enterprise should be encouraged and welcomed. The State could assist such private organisations financially And by recognition of their certificates.

If Hon'ble Prime Minister approves of the general outline of work suggested for (a) technical and engineering students and (b) other students, details will be worked out including the possible programmes of work and estimates.

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A BRIEF DESCRIPTIVE NOTE ON YOUTH IN EUROPEAN LABOUR CAMPS : 1920- 39

The first labour camps, as far as is known, were established in Bulgaria in 1920. Bulgaria had a compulsory labour service which helped to improve the trails, roads and rail-roads of the country by using the labour power of young men who would be otherwise unemployed.

The National Union of Swiss students planned and administered from 1925-39 one of the most extensive system of camps for students. These camps helped students to become acquainted with conditions in

economically backward areas and also to supplement academic work by practical experience during the summer. The Swiss Camps also attracted students from other countries and thus developed international contacts. Camps for the unemployed, organised by the Government in 1933, utilised private organisations and encouraged local initiative.

The International Voluntary Service was developed under the leadership of Pierre Ceresole about 18 years ago. Its camps are of special interest as they have no national appeal and were intended to be the moral equivalent of war. They did not attract a large number of people but those who came were from different nations and pledged to work for a world community that recognised neither national frontiers nor barriers of race or religion.

Work camps received-special attention in Germany both before and after the advent of Hitler. In pre-Nazi Germany, they were primarily camps for the unemployed. The time spent in the camps was used as an orientation period which enabled young people to choose the future profession. One defect of these camps, however,.was that when people left the camps, they returned to conditions of unemployment and were, subject to reactionary propaganda.

Under Hitler the camps were used for semi-military purposes. The mass regimentation tended to minimise the importance of the individual. The propaganda machinery of the Government was turned full blast to convert all inmates into confirmed Nazis. The camps were used primarily for increasing the war potential of the country by strengthening, on the one hand, the food front and, on the other, the fortifications and production of military goods.