; Whereas, on August 29, 1947, Ambedkar was appointed as the Chairman of India’s Constitution Drafting Committee, and became the father and architect of the Constitution of India; Whereas Ambedkar advocated for the inclusion of women’s rights in the Constitution of India and India’s political system, writing I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved ; Whereas Ambedkar served as India’s first Minister of Law and Justice from August 29, 1947, to January 24, 1950, when he resigned after India’s parliament stalled his draft of legislation enshrining gender equality in the laws of inheritance and marriage; Whereas Ambedkar led one of the largest civil rights movements in history, working to establish basic rights for hundreds of millions of Dalits, and succeeded in including Article 17 in the Constitution of India which abolishes untouchability and its practice in any form; Whereas Ambedkar devoted his life to fighting the segregation, stigma, and discrimination against Dalits, and was a leader of the 1927 Mahad Satyagraha March in which Dalits crossed caste lines to desegregate water tanks, temples, and common roadways to oppose the illegal but pervasive segregation against Dalits; Whereas Ambedkar’s influence as an economist is evidenced by his seminal texts on India’s financial systems, his establishment of the Finance Commission of India, and his role in the creation of The Reserve Bank of India (RBI); Whereas Ambedkar championed labor reforms such as changing the daily work schedule from 12 hours to 8 hours and introduced measures like employee insurance, medical leave, dearness pay , equal pay for equal work for women, minimum wages, and timely revision of scale of pay; Whereas Columbia University honored Ambedkar as one of the top 250 Columbians Ahead of Their Time , and American democratic intellectual Dr. Cornel West called Ambedkar one of the greatest public intellectuals