Women and the Five Year Plans

The concept of women's development in the First Five Year Plan (1951-56) was mainly welfare oriented. The Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB), set up in 1953, undertook a number of welfare measures through the voluntary sector. In the Second Five Year Plan (1956-61) women were organised into Mahila Mandals to act as focal points at the grass-root levels for the development of women. The Third, Fourth and other Interim Plans (1961-74) accorded high priority to education of women. Measures to improve maternal and child health services, supplementary feeding for children and nursing and expectant mothers were also introduced.

In the Fifth Plan (1974-78), there was a shift in the approach for women's development from 'welfare' to 'development'. The new approach aimed at an integration of welfare with developmental services.

The Sixth Five Year Plan (1980-85) was a landmark in the history of women's development as it received recognition as one of the developmental sectors and was included in the Sixth Plan Document as a separate chapter for the first time in the history of developmental planning. The Sixth Plan, adopted a multi-disciplinary approach with a three pronged thrust on health, education and employment.

In the Seventh Plan (1985-90), the developmental programmes for women continued with the major objectives of raising their economic and social status and to bring them into the mainstream of national development. A significant step in this direction was to identify/promote the 'beneficiary-oriented programmes' for women in different developmental sectors which extend direct benefits to women.

The Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97), which was launched in 1992, promises to ensure that the benefits of development from different sectors do not bypass women and special programmes will be implemented to complement the general development programmes. Therefore, the flow of benefits to women in the three core sectors of education, health and employment will be monitored with a greater vigil. Women must be enabled to function as equal partners and participants in the developmental process. This approach to the Eighth Plan marks a further shift from 'development' to 'empowerment' of women.

In order to meet both the increasing and challenging needs of women and children, there has been a progressive increase in the Plan outlays over the period of last four developmental decades. The outlay of Rs. 4 crores in the First Plan (1951-56) has gone upto Rs. 2000 crores in the Eighth Five Year Plan (1992-97).