Policies and Programs for Women Welfare and Advancement
The development of women in India - who according to the 1991 census represent 48.1 per cent of the country's population - has occupied the centre-stage in our development planning since independence. However, it was in 1980s that women were recognised as a separate target group and given their rightful place in developmental planning by including a separate chapter viz., 'Women and Development' in the Sixth Plan Document (1980-85). This marked the final breakaway from a welfare approach to women's problems in the earlier years. Since then, all efforts of the government have been directed towards bringing women into the mainstream of the national development process by raising their overall status -social, economic, political and legal - at par with that of men. |
India has always been a relentless champion of the cause of women at all
international and national fora. The policy makers realise that real development cannot
take roots if it bypasses women, who represent the very kernel around which social change
must take shape. The past few years have seen unprecedented changes in the political,
diplomatic, economic and ideological spheres, but certain quiet but perhaps more far
reaching developments have also taken roots. From growth to growth with equity, from
routine delivery of services to people's participation, from economic development to human
development and from services endowment to empowerment, the paradigms of development have
certainly come a long way.