1972.

How many architects remember this year?

Someone who was born in 1972 is 43 years today, especially if you happen to be an architect you should know that you are as old as the Act that gives your profession a statutory value under an Act of the Indian parliament passed in the year of your birth.

I was born long before this Act but I became a student of architecture when this Act was a one year old toddler. I did not understand the provisions of the Act those days but I knew that one architect sat on the chair of the President of Council of Architecture, created to ensure that the Act was followed in letter and spirit. For well over 30 years, this gentleman nurtured the Act well beyond its youth, into the right side of the middle age, the dangerous thirties.

When this Act and the caretaker of the Act namely the Council of Architecture was 6 year old I was in the final year of architecture, wondering why, as a fresh graduate architect from a prestigious institution of India (I.I.T. Kharagpur), I can hope to get a maximum salary of Rs. 500/- per month, that too in any of the metro cities of India, while all fresh engineering graduates from my alma mater started with a salary of not less than Rs. 1000/- per month.

The year was 1978 and that year NASA was held in Chandigarh College of Architecture. The President of CoA graced the occasion to give a pep talk to architecture students assembled from all over India. His talk was not just pep, but full of salt, pepper and butter, eulogising the profession and the great future that awaited us young graduating fresh architects of the great nation called India.

After the speech students were asked if they had any question. No one had any question. All were wallowing in the dream of the great future that awaited them. But I was not convinced by the pep talk. I ran up on the dais to ask a question.

Initially there was some booing when it was announced that a final year student from I.I.T. Kharagpur has a question to the President. But I grabbed the mike and asked my question:

“Sir, as the President of the Council of Architecture what assurance can you give us that every graduate architect will be paid a minimum salary of Rs. 1000/- per month by all architectural firms in India?”

There was pin drop silence. I continued, “Sir, as I understand, architecture as a discipline is far more important to the people and their needs than any of the engineering disciplines. Then why is it that the fresh graduate architects are grossly underpaid compared to engineering graduates? You are the President of Council of Architecture, you are also running an office, what salaries do you pay to a fresh graduate?’

The President was silent. I knew that his office also did not pay more than Rs.500/- per month. Yet he took the mike with a smile and went on to describe how difficult it is to run an office and get projects... The audience became restless and since no direct answer or assurance was forthcoming to my query, my own friends in the crowd started shouting “Halla Bol...” those days the equivalent of ‘Inquilab Zindabad’ among architecture students, a slogan coined by Chandigarh students.

Soon there was chaos. The President had to concede that things were not very rosy for fresh architects in the profession. But he promised to look into the solutions to the problem...

That was it. Nothing happened. The issue was forgotten by him the moment he left the venue. It was never in the agenda, or even for the next 43 years in any of the Council of Architecture executive committee meetings till date. Have you ever seen a rule which says a fresh graduate architect must be paid a salary of amount_______ per month by an architects’ firm?

Have you wondered why? Well, it’s because the top chair of the President is occupied by a series of political manipulations called vote bank politics. Just look up at the names of the past presidents till date on the Council of Architecture website. Have you ever heard of any of them having ever designed a great building, or written a great book on architecture in India?

So there you have the answer.

We need a drastic CHANGE in the next seven years, before the Council of Architecture and the Architects’ Act becomes 50 year old...

Dr. Harimohan Pillai . Architect