Records of the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Centre

Correspondence; reports; grant application forms; financial records; case work papers; and associated material relating to the work of the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Centre. Because the Indian Workers Association carried out welfare work from its establishment, there are some casework papers that predate the opening of the centre in Handsworth in 1978, but the majority of the material dates from the late 1970s and 1980s. Further records of the welfare centre can be found at MS 2142/B

The Indian Workers Association had been involved in community and welfare work since its establishment, and provided assistance to all members of the Indian community, playing a role as advisor and mediator to people in finding employment, complying with immigration regulations, completing tax forms, lodging claims for family allowance and other benefits, securing accommodation and mortgages, and getting legal representation. There is evidence that a welfare office was set up in 1961 (see MS 2141/A/3/3/2), but there is little more information about the remit of this office. By the late 1970s, the Association was dealing with a number of social and welfare issues arising from the arrival in Britain of Indian migrants' wives and families, and the different needs of younger Indians who had grown up in Britain. These issues included the problems of youth unemployment; the need for English language tuition; the provision of childcare and playgroup facilities; and the growing need for the provision of a conciliation service for family disputes and cases in which adult children became estranged from their parents.

In order to continue to fulfil a social and welfare role in the community, the Indian Workers Association wanted to purchase premises to use as a permanent welfare centre which would provide social and cultural facilities as well as a point of contact for people seeking advice and support. It was intended that this welfare centre would be run by an organiser or warden, with assistance from part-time paid and voluntary workers. The Association identified a property at 346 Soho Road in the Handsworth area of Birmingham, and applied to the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust for financial assistance in the purchase of this property in 1977. In order to receive funding from charitable trusts, the Association set up the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Trust to oversee the running of the welfare centre, to be called the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Centre, and to administer its accounts. A constitution was drawn up, and the trust was managed by a committee elected annually, consisting of six members and Honorary Officers; President, Treasurer and Secretary. The centre opened in May 1978. It was partially destroyed by fire in January 1991, and was rebuilt with the help of grants from the Cadbury Trust during the early 1990s.

The trust was funded by grants from the Cadbury Trust and the Urban Aid Programme; by subscriptions and donations from members of the trust; and by fund raising events organised by the Indian Workers Association.

Although the main function of the welfare centre was to provide advisory and welfare services, the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Trust also staged cultural awareness events, and campaigned with the Indian Workers Association for the release of government papers relating to Udham Singh from 1989 until the papers were finally opened in 1996 and 1997. The welfare trust was then involved in the publication of an edition of these documents, and of a book on the life of Udham Singh written by Navtej Singh of Punjabi University, Patiala in India.

The co-ordinator of the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Trust was Surinder Kumar Taggar until his death in 2002. The welfare centre celebrated its Silver Jubilee in August 2003.

See MS 2142/B for further records of the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Centre