Introduction

The overriding objective of a country’s policy and planning is to raise the standard of living and enhance the productive capabilities of its people. With over a billion people, this challenge is particularly daunting for a developing country such as India.

This chapter attempts to summarize India’s initiatives towards meeting the objectives of Agenda 21 for the social sector. In most cases, the origin of these initiatives dates well before the Rio Summit, reflecting the primacy attached to social development. Given the cross-sectoral nature of issues related to poverty, government initiatives have been analyzed in several parts of this report. This chapter touches upon some issues that directly relate to poverty eradication and human resource development.

The chapter begins with a brief narration of Agenda 21 social objectives notably poverty reduction, access to education, employment opportunities and health services; and the special considerations of women and vulnerable groups in society. This is followed by a discussion of the extensive organizational structure in the country to address these concerns; highlights of the major initiatives relating to each Agenda 21 objective and progress vis-à-vis these objectives. The chapter concludes with the main concerns and strategies that need to be adopted to address these.

Social sector and Agenda 21

Agenda 21 recognizes that eradication of poverty and, greater equity in income distribution along with human resource development remain major challenges for the global community. Given the interrelationships amongst economic growth, environment and poverty, an anti-poverty strategy is one of the basic conditions for ensuring sustainable development. An effective strategy for tackling the problems of poverty, development and environment should encompass simultaneously demographic issues, enhanced health care and education, the rights of women, the role of indigenous people and local communities and democratic participation process in association with improved governance. Integral to such action is, together with international support, the promotion of economic growth in developing countries that is both sustained and sustainable and direct action in eradication of poverty by strengthening employment and income-generating programmes.

Providing sustainable livelihood opportunities

Agenda 21 recognizes the need for direct action to eradicate poverty by strengthening employment and income-generating opportunities. It stresses on the need to generate remunerative employment compatible with the country’s endowments; assign a high priority to professional training and develop an adequate facilitating infrastructure.

Demographic dynamics and sustainability

Agenda 21 underscores the need to formulate policies that address demographic issues within the holistic goal of development. Programmes would need to be evolved that promote changes in demographic trends and factors towards sustainability, in keeping with the freedom, dignity and values of individuals. Such programmes would include reproductive health programmes and services and appropriate institutional arrangements to facilitate the implementation of demographic activities.

Education

Agenda 21 identifies education, training and raising public awareness as essential for social progress and improving the capacity of people to address environment and developmental issues. The document underlines the need for:

• Ensuring universal access to basic education, access to primary education through formal or non-formal methods and reduction of adult illiteracy
• Establishing and strengthening vocational training programmes that meet developmental and environmental considerations and ensure access to training opportunities regardless of social status, age, gender, and race or religion.

Health

Meeting primary health care needs

Agenda 21 underlines the need for developing and strengthening primary health care systems that are practical, community-based, scientifically sound, socially acceptable and meet the basic needs for clean water, safe food and sanitation.

Control of communicable diseases

There is a need for organizing programmes that support the principles of the global AIDS strategy and vaccinations for preventing communicable diseases. Intrinsic to this is the development and dissemination of technology as an effective tool for controlling communicable diseases and ensuring technical assistance.

Sustainable human settlements

Agenda 21 identifies the objective of sustainable human settlement as being crucial to sustainable development. This would include improving the social economic and the environmental quality of human settlements and the living and working environment for all people in particular the urban and rural poor.

Empowerment of women

Agenda 21 emphasizes the active participation of women in decision-making as a means to fostering social development. The need to eliminate violence against women and strengthen their capacity occupies an important place in the document. It underlines the need for gender equality in education and training, health and nutrition facilities, access to credit, and employment.

Ensuring the interests of children and youth

Agenda 21 emphasises on the need to further the interests and rights of children and advance the role of youth and actively involve them in protection of the environment and promotion of economic and social development. It stresses on the need for providing the youth access to appropriate secondary education or equivalent vocational training and for establishing processes that promote dialogue between youth and Government at all levels.

Recognizing the role of vulnerable and indigenous people and ensuring their active participation.

Agenda 21 aims at establishing, where appropriate, arrangements to strengthen the participation of indigenous people in formulating national policies, laws and programmes. It also stresses on ensuring their involvement both at the local and national levels in resource management and conservation strategies.

Social sector in India: review and analysis of initiatives

Poverty reduction has been the overriding objective of development planning in India. There has been over time a conceptual broadening in the notions of well being and deprivation. The notion of well being has shifted away from just material attainments, or the means for development, to outcomes that are either desirable in themselves or desirable because of their role in supporting better opportunities for people. Similarly, it is recognised that poverty is a multi-faceted phenomenon going beyond lack of adequate income and must be viewed as a state of deprivation spanning the social, economic and political context of the people that prevents their effective participation as equals in the development process. This recognition has resulted in a renewed focus on education and health- critical for capacity building- and other social and environmental factors that have a direct bearing on the state of well being (Planning Commission, 2002). Since Independence, the government has accordingly followed a three-pronged strategy for poverty eradication, which comprises:

• Economic growth and overall development
• Human development with emphasis on health, education and minimum needs, including protection of human rights and raising the social status of the weak and poor
• Directly-targeted programmes for poverty alleviation through employment generation, training and building up asset endowment of the poor

Economic growth enables expansion of productive employment and generation of resources, which are vital to support any form of intervention for eradication of poverty. Since 1991 India has undertaken trade reforms, financial sector reforms, and removal of controls, which primarily were introduced with the objective of improving efficiency and productivity to accelerate growth. The ultimate objective of such reforms was ensuring the expeditious eradication of poverty. Adequate precaution was taken to protect the poorer sections of the society against the short-term effects of these changes. This was done mainly through increased allocation of resources for programmes for poor in the national plan and sharpening the focus of such programmes on the poor. The Central support for human resource and social development in the country has progressively increased through the 1990s. The Central Government’s expenditure (plan and non-plan) on education, health, family welfare, nutrition, sanitation, rural development, social welfare etc. has increased from Rs 9608 crore in 1992-93 to Rs 40,205 crore in 2001-02 (budget estimates). As a proportion of total expenditure the combined plan and non-plan Central expenditure on these areas has increased from 8.1% in 1992-93 to 10.7% in 2001-02 (MoF, 2002). The various initiatives are discussed in detail in later sections of this chapter.

Poverty eradication and capacity enhancement programmes in the country fall under a number of ministries and departments as shown in Figure 16.1. In addition to these, there are several other ministries/departments (agriculture; sanitation, drinking water supply, etc.) that impact poverty eradication directly and a host of others that have an indirect impact on poverty reduction.

Most programmes are implemented at the block/village level, where local bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) play a significant role together with NGO’s. The enactment of the 73^rd and 74^th Amendments of the Constitution have provided a framework for decentralisation of governance and local participation in the formulation and implementation of plans for economic development and social justice including environmental protection and provision of basic services like water supply, sanitation and solid waste management.

While the details of poverty eradication programmes are discussed in the following sections, it is useful to discuss here initiatives for improving access of the poor to food, since chronic food insecurity is an important manifestation of poverty in the country. The Public Distribution System (PDS) evolved in the wake of foodgrains shortages in 1960s is a mix of producer-price support cum consumer subsidy and is seen as a safety net for protecting poorer sections who might adversely be affected by price fluctuations. To streamline the existing PDS, a targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) was introduced in 1997 under which special cards were issued to families below the poverty line and essential goods were sold to them through the PDS at specially subsidized prices. According to the 2001-02 Economic Survey, the quantity of the foodgrains earmarked to meet below-poverty-line (BPL) requirements is 18.52 million tonnes per annum (at the rate of 25 kg/family/ month) benefiting an estimated 65.2 million poor families while for the population above the poverty line (APL), a quantity of 10.33 million tonnes of food grain per annum is earmarked for distribution under the TPDS.

Achievements

As is apparent in Tables 16.4 and 16.5 above, the achievements in the health and population sectors can be classified under four broad heads: population and demography; prevention and disease control, infrastructure; and promotion of Indian systems of medicine.

Population and demography

The intensive health care and family planning programme in the country has led to an overall decrease in the birth rates along with stabilization of death rates over time (Figure 16.2). This has resulted in a decline in the rate of growth of population in the country from 2.14% in 1981-1991 to 1.93% in the decade, 1991-2001 (Census of India, 2001) (Figure 16.3).

Figure 16.2 Trends in birth rate and growth rate
(Birth and Death Rate in India, 1901 to 2001)

Figure 16.3 Trend in the growth of population: 1901-2001

Half a century after the formulation of the first family planning programme, the country has [2]:

• Reduced crude birth rate (CBR) from 40.8 (1951) to 26.4 (1998, SRS);
• Halved the infant mortality rate (IMR) from 146 per 1000 live births in 1951 to 70 per 1000 live births in 1999 (MoHRD, 2002);
• Quadrupled couple protection rate (CPR) from 10.4 percent (1971) to 44 percent (1999);
• Reduced crude death rate (CDR) from 25 (1951) to 9.0 (1998, SRS);
• Added 25 years to life expectancy from 37 years to 62 years ;
• Achieved nearly universal awareness of the need for and methods of family planning, and
• Reduced total fertility rate from 6.0 (1951) to 3.3 (1997, SRS).

(Source: National Population Policy 2000 [3] and MoHRD (2000))

Disease prevention and control

As summarized in Table 16.5 above, the government has launched a number of programmes to control infectious and other diseases in the country. These programmes have led to a significant decline in their incidence. Some indicators of this performance are:

• Number of reported cases of polio has progressively decreased from 28757 in 1987 to 3265 in 1995 to 1005 reported during 1996. In 2000, only 265 cases had been detected throughout the country. Most parts of the country have become polio-free and widespread transmission is restricted only to the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
• A review of the TB programme undertaken in February 2000 by the government and WHO found that there has been a striking increase in the proportion of patients cured.
• Number of malaria cases has declined form 75 million in 1951 to 2.2 million in 2000.
• Number of leprosy cases per 10,000 people has fallen from 38.1 in 1951 to 3.74 in 2000.
• The HIV estimates for the year 2001 (based on HIV Sentinel Surveillance round-2001) reveal that while AIDS epidemic is still spreading there is a gradual decline in new infections. The number of new infections can be put to a figure of 0.11 million compared to 0.16 million in 2000 [4].
• Small pox and guineaworm have been eradicated.

The following table (Table 16.6) reports the achievements of immunization programmes in the country.

Table 16.6 Immunisation programme: % of targets achieved for various diseases - All India:1989/90 to 1999/2000

(* Figures provisional)

Source. MOH&FW

DPT: Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus

OPV: Oral Polio

BCG: Bacillus of Calmette and Guerin

MSLS: Measles

TT: Tetanus Toxoid

Health care infrastructure

The various programmes discussed above have reinforced the delivery of primary, secondary and tertiary health care throughout the country. As a result of the several initiatives of the government, there has been an increase in the number of health care centres/sub-centres/primary health centres/ community health centres from 725 in 1951 to 1,63,181 in the year 2000. The number of dispensaries and hospitals increased over five-fold, which indicates their accessibility by the population. Table 16.7 provides a summary of the major achievements.

Table 16.7 Major achievements in health care infrastructure:1951-2000

Source. MoH&FW

CBHI: Central Bureau of Health Intelligence

MCI: Medical Council of India

INC: Indian Nursing Council

To further enhance the health standards a New Health Policy (NHP), 2002 has been formulated (Box 16.1). The policy focuses on the need for enhanced funding and organisational restructuring of the national public health initiatives in order to facilitate more equitable access to health facilities.

Box 16.1 New Health Policy-2002

Some of the important features of the NHP are:

• Increase health sector expenditure to 6% of GDP with 2% of GDP being contributed as public health investment by the year 2010. State governments to increase the commitment to health sector,
• Increase sectoral outlay on primary health sector,
• Ensure provision of financial resources, in addition to technical support, monitoring and evaluation at the national level; gradual convergence of all heath programmes under a single field administration,
• Develop capacity within State Public Health Administration for scientific designing of public health projects
• Recognize the need for more frequent in-service training of public health medical personnel; consider need for extending public health services,
• Greater emphasis on implementation of public health programmes through local self-government institutions
• Promote setting up of organized urban primary health care structure; network of decentralized mental health services; prioritise school health programmes; operationalise integrated disease control network
• Envisage identification of specific programmes targeted at women’s health; periodic screening of health conditions of workers.

Indian systems of medicine and homeopathy

The Indian systems of medicine and homeopathy (ISM&H) consist of Ayurveda, Sidhha, Unani and Homeopathy, and therapies such as Yoga and Naturopathy. During the last five decades there has been a progressive increase in the number of physicians qualifying through educational institutions in ISM&H. There are about 6 lakh ISM&H practitioners serving in remote rural and urban areas (Planning Commission, 2001c). Strengthening undergraduate and post graduate training in ISM&H, establishment of speciality clinics in major hospitals, standardisation of drugs, enhancing availability of raw materials, research and development and information, education and communication (IEC) are some of the major achievements of the Department of ISM&H. There are four Research Councils for ISM&H—Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha (CCRAS); Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM); Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH); and Central Council for Research in Yoga and Naturopathy (CCRYN). These initiate, aid, guide, develop and coordinate basic and applied research, medico-botanical surveys, research on the cultivation of medicinal plants and pharmacognostical studies.

Over the last two decades the cultivation of medicinal plants and herbs has been unable to meet the increasing demands for drugs used in these systems. Some of the species of medicinal plants are reported to be endangered because of increasing pressure on the forests. A scheme has been initiated for the development and cultivation of medicinal plants with the objective of augmenting production of raw herbs of plant origin by providing central assistance for their cultivation and development.

Education

‘Education for all’ is one of the priority areas of the government. Programmes have been initiated by the government at various levels involving state governments and local bodies to enhance the spread of education in the country. Several of these schemes, launched by the Central government are summarized in Table 16.8 below.

Table 16.8 Highlights of policies/programmes/schemes in the education sector

Achievements

As can be seen from the above table, a number of central and state level initiatives are in place to enhance the level of literacy in the country. As a result of these, the literacy rates for India as a whole increased from 18.33 % in 1951 to 65.38 % in 2001, with the literacy rate for males at 75.85% and that for females at 54.16% (Census of India, 2001).

The country's commitment to elementary education sector is reflected in the move to make free and compulsory education a Fundamental Right for all children in the age group six to fourteen. Necessary Constitutional Amendment Bill has been introduced in the Parliament towards this end. The government has also launched the programme Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Movement for Education for All) which would be the main instrument for fulfilling this Constitutional obligation. It is a holistic and convergent scheme, with an effort to universalize elementary education by community-ownership of the school system. The community is the key in the planning, implementation and monitoring of SSA. There is a special focus in the programme for girls and other disadvantaged groups. In addition, to the gender-focus in SSA, the government is implementing some gender specific programmes like Mahila Samakhya and is also launching two more programmes, viz. Kasturba Gandhi Swatantra Vidyalaya (KGSV) and the National Programme for the Education of Girls at the Elementary Level (NPEGEL), targeting key issues affecting girls' education.

Another notable initiative operating at a decentralised level through collaboration of the state government, local body/panchayat and the community is the Education Guarantee Scheme (1997) introduced in the state of Madhya Pradesh (Table 16.8). Under EGS, the Government gives a guarantee to provide a primary schooling facility to children in a habitation where there is no such facility within a kilometer within a period of 90 days of receiving a demand for such a facility by the local community.
The achievements in access to education sector can be categorized under the following broad headings: basic education, adult education and technical and professional education.

Basic education

• Major achievements in the area of primary education include:
• Three-fold increase in the number of primary schools from 210,000 in 1950-51 to 642,000 in 1999-00.
• Increase by 15 times in the number of upper primary schools from 13,596 in 1950-51 to 198,000 in 1999-00.
• 83% of the rural habitations and 94 % of the rural population with access to primary schools within a distance of 1 km; 76 % of the rural habitations and 85% of the rural population served by upper primary schools within a distance of 3 km as per the Sixth All India Educational Survey, 1993.
• Increase by 5.9 times in total enrolment at the primary stage, with the share of girls’ enrolment having increased from 28.1% in 1950-51 to 43.6% in 1999-00.

• Enrolment at the upper primary levels increased by 13 times, in which, the relative share of girls’ enrolment which was only 16.1% in 1950-51 rose to about 40.4% in 1999-00.
• Significant increase in the gross enrolment ratio at primary and upper primary levels (Table 16.9), with enrolment for girls rising from 24.8% to 85.18% at the primary level and the boys/girls differential declining from 35.8% in 1950-51 to 18.90% in 1999-00; GER for girls at upper primary level improved from 4.6% to 49.66%.

Table16.9 Growth in school enrolment at the primary and upper primary level 1950/51-1999/2000

Source. MoHRD

Adult education

The National Literacy Mission (NLM) was set up in 1988 to impart a new sense of urgency and seriousness to adult education. The goal of this Mission is to attain total literacy i.e. a sustainable threshold literacy rate of 75% by 2005. The Mission seeks to achieve this by imparting functional literacy to non-literates in the 15-35 age group. This has been a very successful programme for promoting adult literacy in India.

The Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) has been the principal strategy of the National Literacy Mission (NLM) for eradication of illiteracy. On the conclusion of a Total Literacy Campaign (TLC), a Post-Literacy Campaign (PLC) is implemented. The NLM has emphasized the integration of a skill development programme with the PL programme to enable neo-literates to acquire skills for their economic self-reliance and as a problem-solving tool, so that learning becomes relevant to living and working. the salient features of the NLM include:

• The Scheme of Continuing Education (CE) encompasses the removal of residual illiteracy, individual interest programmes, skill development, rural libraries etc., would allow for opening of Continuing Education Centres in every major village.
• NGOs receive grants for activities relating to the organization of the functional literacy component in various developmental programmes and for imparting functional and technical education to neo-literates.
• State Resource Centres (SRC) conduct the training of literacy functionaries and preparation of reading material.
• The Jan Shikshan Sansthans (JSSs) function as district repository of vocational/technical skills in both urban and rural areas.

As of December 2001, 561 out of 588 districts in the country, were covered under Adult Education Programme—166 under Total Literacy Campaigns, 260 under the Post Literacy Programme, 30 under the Rural Functional Literacy Project (RFLP) and 105 under the continuing Education Programme. About 91.5 million people have been made literate as of 31.12.2000. Besides, 92 Jan Shikshan Sansthans have been set up and 25 State Resource Centres are functioning under NGOs. The Directorate of Adult Education and National Institute of Adult Education (NIAE) are functioning as National Resource Centres.

Higher education (including technical and professional education)

The number of secondary and senior secondary schools in the country increased from 7416 in 1950-51 to 1,16,000 in 1999-00 with a student enrolment of 28 million. The Sixth All-India Educational Survey 1993 showed that there was an increase of 51% in the enrolment of girls in classes IX to X and a 54% increase in classes XI to XII as compared to 20% in the primary and 40% in the upper primary stages during the period 1986 to 1993 (MoF, 2002).

There has been an impressive growth in the area of university and higher education. Accreditation of all universities and colleges has been made mandatory. It has also been made possible for deemed universities to open campuses abroad. All higher education institutions at all levels can now have 15% supernumerary seats for foreigners. These steps will improve the quality of education offered and make the system more globally competitive.

Technical and professional education in the country has played a significant role in economic and technical development by producing quality manpower. There are at present 1058 approved engineering colleges at the degree and 1231 colleges at diploma level. Apart from this, 797 institutes impart courses on Master of Computer Applications Courses. There are 820 approved management institutes imparting MBA courses. Strong linkages have been developed between technical institutions and industry. For strengthening technical education and improving the polytechnic pass-outs, massive efforts have been made at the state level with the assistance of international agencies such as the World Bank (MoF, 2002).

Sustainable human settlements [5]

Housing and shelter

Agenda 21 stressed on the need for ‘Providing adequate shelter for all’. The various initiatives of the government in both urban and rural areas are briefly set out in Table 16.10.

Table 16.10 Highlights of policies and other initiatives for provision of shelter for all

Achievements

The government has taken numerous measures to promote sustainable settlements over the years. Efforts have been made over the years to achieve the objective of shelter for all through a number of centrally sponsored schemes and institutional financing through HUDCO (Housing and Urban Development Corporation) and other institutions. Several enabling programmes have been initiated, such as, the establishment of a housing finance system with a National Housing Bank at the apex level.

In 1998, the National Housing Policy was revised and amended, making a conscious attempt to redefine housing from a mere physical asset to more dynamic concept that of a sustainable living habitat. The concept of adequate shelter includes adequate social and physical infrastructure, use of energy saving and cost effective building material, good clean living environment and other such parametres. The emphasis is therefore on human settlement technology rather than a civil engineering approach. In order to meet the target of achieving the objective of Agenda 21 by 2007, it was decided to create 2 million additional dwelling units predominantly for the poor in urban areas each year. A practical approach was adopted to provide housing by involving various stakeholders- corporate and co-operative sector, housing finance institutions and research institutions with government playing the role of a facilitator. The Government seeks to achieve the target of ‘shelter for all’ through a facilitating approach principally in three areas—legal reforms, fiscal incentives and transfer of technology. A set of laws, statues, rules, regulations which have an impact on the housing and construction activity have been undertaken including an amendment to the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act to expand the supply of land, formulation of a model Rent Control Act and model Apartment Ownership Bill (details in Table 16.10). Some fiscal incentives for enlarging the resource base have been taken by the Government. These include increase of government equity in HUDCO to enable an increase in mobilization of funds, allowing tax concessions for rental housing, providing for external commercial borrowings, activating Housing Co-operatives etc. The shelter needs of the poor cannot solely be achieved by the legal and fiscal concessions and therefore the use of efficient construction techniques and cost effective technologies becomes imperative. In this regard the Building Material and Technology Promotion Council (BMTPC) and Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) and Habitat Polytechnic have played an important role.

An action plan has been prepared for the development of housing in rural areas. It comprises the following elements (for details refer to Table 16.10).

• Upgradation of unserviceable kutcha houses in the Indira Awaas Yojana in addition to new construction
• Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana
• Credit-cum-subsidy scheme for rural housing
• Samagra Awaas Yojana
• Innovative scheme for rural housing and habitat development
• Rural building centres
• Enhancement of equity contribution by Ministry of Rural Development to HUDCO
• National Mission for Rural Housing and Habitat

During the period 1991 and 1997 about 57 lakh houses have been constructed through the ongoing Indira Awaas Yojana, State Governments and HUDCO. Further a major initiative - Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana- aimed at creation of social and economic infrastructure at the village level has recently been introduced.

As per the National Human Development Report (Planning Commission, 2002), the quality of housing has improved over the years. The share of households living in kutcha and semi pucca houses has declined by around 9% between 1981 and 1991 while those living in pucca houses increased from 33% to nearly 42%.

Basic Amenities

Safe drinking water and sanitation

Provision of sustainable housing facilities goes in tandem with access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation facilities. The 1991 Census reported nearly 62% of households in India with access to safe drinking water compared to 38% in 1981. The NFHS II survey revealed that share of population with access to safe drinking water was nearly 78% in 1998-99 while 64% of the households in the country did not have access to sanitation facilities compared to 76% in 1991 (Planning Commission, 2002).

The government has undertaken several initiatives to ensure availability of safe drinking water. These are discussed in more detail in Chapters 7 and 15. The trend is towards greater community participation in the provision and management of basic services. One such programme, Swajal, the Uttar Pradesh Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project is implemented by the Government with World Bank assistance since 1996. Under this programme, nearly 1000 villages have been covered in 12 districts of Uttaranchal with the aim of providing not only safe drinking water in rural areas but also community empowerment by converging a range of development initiatives including Non-Formal Education (NFE); Hygiene and Environmental Sanitation Awareness (HESA); and Women’s Development Initiatives (WDI). The programme has been successful in promoting self-reliance amongst the local communities.

Another successful programme is the Sulabh Sanitation Movement started by Sulabh International Social Service Organization, an NGO. The movement has demonstrated the use of low cost technology for providing sanitation facilities throughout the country especially to the economically weaker sections. The key to the success of the Sulabh movement is creation of public awareness and enhanced community participation in implementation and maintenance of the infrastructure.

Other infrastructure

Provision of basic infrastructure-road connectivity and electricity - particularly in the rural areas is often the primary means for supplementing effort directed towards providing basic health and education services as well as infrastructural support for production, trade and commerce at the local village level.

The road length per 100 square kilometres has increased from 45 kilometres in 1981 to 61 km in 1991 to about 75 km in 1997 (Planning Commission, 2002). During the same period the road length per million population has increased from 21.68 km to 25.82 km. To provide rural connectivity in rural areas the government has recently launched the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Its aim is to connect all unconnected habitations with a population of more than 500 persons through good all-weather roads by the end of Tenth Five-Year Plan period.

Access to electricity has also shown considerable improvement over time. About 86.3% of the villages have been electrified in the country and several governmental schemes have been put in place to electrify the remaining villages (for details refer to Chapter 3).

Women

The principle of gender equality and protection of women’s rights have been prime concerns in Indian thinking since independence. Some of the Government’s main programmes, laws, and policies in this pursuit are discussed in Table 16.11 below.

Table 16.11 Highlights of initiatives for women

In addition to these, India has ratified the International Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1993 and endorsed the Mexico Plan of Action (1975), the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies (1985), the Beijing Declaration as well as the Platform for Action (1995) for appropriate follow up.

Achievements

The Indian Constitution and legal framework uphold the dignity and status of women and seek to create an environment where empowerment is facilitated. The 73^rd and 74^th Constitutional Amendment Bills for strengthening the local self governance, provides that a third of all elected offices in the local bodies are reserved for women.

As can be inferred from the Table 16.11 above, the planning strategies on women have evolved over the years from ‘welfare’ to ‘development’ to empowerment’. The Eighth Five-Year Plan adopted strategies to ensure that the developmental benefits do not bypass women and implemented special programmes—Mahila Samridhi Yojana and set up institutions like the National Credit Fund called the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh to complement the general development programmes. The RMK was established to facilitate credit support to poor women particularly those in the unorganised sector.

The Ninth Five-Year Plan further brought about changes in the planning strategy enabling women to exercise their rights both within and outside home, as equal partners with men. The empowerment of women became a primary objective in the Ninth Plan, for which the National Policy for Empowerment of women was approved in 2001, the year that was observed as ‘Women Empowerment Year’ (refer to Box 16.2). The centre and states were also directed to adopt a special strategy of Women Component Plan, through which 30% of funds would to be earmarked in all women sectors. The Government recently has initiated gender budgeting to establish the gender-differential impacts of various government programmes.

To deal with the increasing problem of violence against women and the girl child within and outside the family, concrete efforts have been undertaken such as the setting up of women cells, family courts, counselling centres. A National Commission for women has been established and the National Human Rights Commission has been mandated to look into the human rights issues involving women. Special cells for preventing crimes against them have also been established..

As a consequence of several efforts initiated by the Government of India there has been a perceptible improvement in the status of woman.

The life expectancy at birth among women has steadily improved overtime and stood at 61.8 in 1997 (MoHRD, 2002). The female literacy rate has risen steadily over time from 29.76% in 1981 to 39.29% in 1991 and further to 54.16% in 2001. Higher literacy rates offer possibilities of greater exposure to new ways of thinking, which in turn results in better health, improved maternal competence and lower infant mortality. The percentage of women in the organized activity has increased from 10.9% in 1961 to 17.4% in 1998 (Planning Commission, 2001a). On March 31, 1999 women constituted about 17.2% of the organized sectors (public and private) employment (MoF, 2002).

The index of gender inequality measuring the attainments in human development indicators for females as a proportion of that of males has shown improvement, though marginally, in the 1980s. At the national level, the GEI increased from 62% in the early eighties to 67.6% in the early nineties. This implies that on an average, the attainments of women on human development indicators were only two-thirds of those of men (Planning Commission, 2002).

Box 16.2 National Policy for Empowerment of Women (2001)

The goal of the Policy is to bring about advancement, development and empowerment of women. Specific objectives of the Policy include:

• Creating an environment through positive economic and social policies for full development of women
• The dejure and de facto enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedom by women on equal basis with men in all spheres-political, social, cultural and civil
• Equal access to participation and decision making
• Equal access to health, education, career, vocational guidance, employment, equal remuneration, occupational health and safety, social security etc.
• Strengthening legal system aimed at elimination of all forms of discrimination against women
• Changing societal attitudes and community practices by active participation and involvement of both men and women
• Mainstreaming a gender perspective in development process
• Elimination and discrimination of all forms of violence against women and girl child
• Building and strengthening partnerships with civil society, particularly the women organisations.

Children and youth

Investment on child development is viewed not only as a desirable societal investment for the nation’s future but also as fulfilment of the right of every child to ‘survival, protection, and development’. The Convention on the Rights of Child ratified by India in 1992 is the guiding principle for formulation of necessary policies and programmes of child development. The highlights of some major policies, acts and others initiatives are given in Table 16.12.

Table 16.12 Highlights of initiatives for children and Youth

Achievements

Over the years there have been significant efforts towards child development. Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), is one such scheme which aims to provide an integrated package of health, nutrition and educational services to children below six years, pregnant women and nursing mothers (Box 16.3). Other initiatives in this direction include, National Crèche Fund for child care services; assistance to voluntary organisations in the field of welfare of women and child development and proposed setting up of National Commission for Children to safeguard constitutional and legal rights of the children (refer to Table 16.12).

India has all along followed an active policy for tackling the problem of child labour. The present regime of laws relating to child labour has a pragmatic foundation and is consistent with the International Labour Conference Resolution of 1979. The Government has sought to ban the employment of children below 14 years of age in hazardous employment and to regulate working conditions for children in other employment. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Protection) Act, 1986 seeks to achieve this objective (Table 16.12).

Youth are a major resource in the task of nation building. Over the years there has been a major thrust towards developing the capabilities of the youth and enabling their involvement in the development process. Major schemes undertaken during the Eighth Five-Year Plan (1992-97) include National Service Scheme (NSS) and Nehru Yuva Kendras (NYK). The NSS aims at building the social consciousness of the youth with an overall objective of personality development of students through community service. Recently NSS launched a sensitisation campaign on AIDS awareness called ‘Universities Talk AIDS’ (UTA) in 174 universities all over the country. Besides, 17 lifestyle education centres have also been established to orient youth towards planned parenthood and healthy lifestyle.

Another scheme called the Scheme for Training of Youth has been formulated to motivate the youth thereby helping them develop leadership qualities through training programmes so that youth can act as focal point of dissemination of knowledge in their own area of activity. It also aims at creating new skills among rural youth in order to build foster self-reliant villages.

Box 16.3: Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS)

ICDS is a visionary scheme aimed at holistic development of children. The programme has played an important role in addressing the nutritional and health needs of the children and women across the country. The scheme targets the most vulnerable groups of population including children up to 6 years of age belonging to the poorest families and those living in disadvantaged areas including backward rural areas, tribal areas and slums. In addition to children, ICDS also takes care of the essential needs of pregnant women and nursing mothers in socially and economically backward villages and slums.

Three essential components of ICDS are:

• Nutrition
• Health care
• Early childhood care and pre-school education

Using the ICDS infrastructure, a special intervention scheme was devised for adolescent girls (AG scheme). This was revised later and renamed the Kishori Shakti Yojana with a training component aimed at empowerment of women and was converged with other programmes of similar nature in education, rural development, employment and health sectors.

Source: MoHRD (2002)

Socially disadvantaged groups

The Government of India recognizes that certain under privileged sections of society require special attention in the planning process. Over the years there have been continuous efforts to grant social justice to these socially disadvantaged classes viz. scheduled castes (SCs), scheduled tribes (STs) and other backward classes (OBCs). The following table (Table 16.13) summarizes the policies and programmes that have been effected in the country for their upliftment.

Table 16.13 Highlights of initiatives for uplifting unprivileged groups

Achievements

The National Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Finance and Development Corporation (NSFDC); National Safai Karamcharis Finance and Development Corporation (NSKFDC); Tribal Co-operative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd. (TRIFED); and State Scheduled Castes Development Corporations (SCDCs) have been catalysts in enhancing the status of disadvantaged groups. In addition, there are explicit provisions for these groups in most education, training and income-generation programmes.

The impact of developmental plans, policies and programmes resulted in a perceptible improvement in the socio-economic status of SC/STs.

The percentage of population belonging to SC/STs living below the poverty line has come down from 57.60 (1983-84) to 48.37 (1993-94) and from 63.14 (1983-84) to 51.14 (1993-94), respectively (Planning Commission, 2001a).

There has been a significant improvement in their literacy levels (Table 16.14).

Table 16.14 All India literacy rate of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (%)

Source. Department of Education (1995) produced in Planning Commission (2001a)

Female literacy levels for both SC/STs has shown improvement over time. The female literacy rate has risen form from 6.44% in 1971 to 23.76% for SC while for STs, there has been an increase from 4.85% to 18.19% (Planning Commission, 2001a).

Concerns

Despite a perceptible improvement in basic socio-demographic indicators and a reduction in overall poverty, large numbers of our population continue to live in abject poverty and there are large gaps in our social attainments even after five decades of planning. The government recognizes that there is still a long way to go to meet its social objectives. The main concerns include:

Prevalence of poverty

Though the poverty ratio has declined, the absolute number of poor has remained stable at around 320 million for a fairly long period of two decades, (1973-1993) due to the growth in population (MoF, 2002). In addition, there are wide regional, gender and class disparities in the incidence of poverty in the country (Table 16.1).

High density of population

India accounts for 2.4% of the world surface area with 16.7% of the world’s population. Though the growth rate of the population has fallen particularly in the last decade, the large numbers pose a big challenge through their impact on density (which has increased from 117 in 1951 to 324 person per sq km in 2001), rural-urban migration and demand for services and natural resources.

High incidence of malnutrition and deficiency diseases

Though the overall levels of malnutrition have declined it is still prevalent with wide inter-state variations. More than half the children in the age group 1-5 years in rural areas are under-nourished, the fraction being even higher for girl children. As per the National Family Health Survey II, 1996-98 about 47% of children under age of 3 years were undernourished.

Deceleration in employment generation

There has been a decline in the rate of growth of employment from 2.43% per annum (1987/88 to 1993/94) to about 1% per annum (1993/94–1999/2000). This decline is associated with the lower growth of population and labour force over this period. The incidence of unemployment defined as percentage of persons unemployed in the age group 15 years and above on the usual principal and subsidiary status to the total number of persons in the labour force has increased at the national level from 2% in 1983 to 2.3% in 1999-2000 (Planning Commission, 2002).

Poor implementation of poverty-alleviation programmes

Evaluations of programmes such as the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) suggest that these suffer from numerous defects including sub-critical investments, unviable projects, lack of technological and institutional capabilities in designing and executing projects utilizing local resources and expertise, indifferent delivery of credit (high transaction costs, complex procedure, poor recovery etc.), poor targeting of beneficiaries etc (Planning Commission, 2001b).

Lack of infrastructure in providing primary health care

Though a substantial infrastructure for providing primary health care has been created, the issues of inequitable distribution of existing institutions and manpower, poor functioning due to mismatch between personnel and infrastructure, requirement of skill upgradation of personnel, provision of adequate diagnostics, drugs etc., and lack of an appropriate referral system remain areas of concern as identified by the Ninth Five-Year Plan. Technological advances that widen the spectrum of interventions have not penetrated to the poor, still being beyond the financial reach of the masses. Indigenous and alternatives forms of medicine – Homeopathy and Ayurveda- have not been effectively integrated with conventional medicine.

Low levels of primary education

There is a huge backlog of un-enrolled children in the country. As per National Family Health Survey 1998-99, 78.6% of the children in the age group 6-14 are attending school i.e. out of the 200 million children about 157 million are attending school, leaving 43 million without access to schools.

Inadequate education infrastructure

The insufficient number of primary schools remains another concern. According to the all-India 6th Educational Survey, about 17% rural habitations were not served by primary school within a distance of one kilometre. The survey revealed that about 40% of primary schools were being run in thatched huts/tents. Apart from this, the lack of basic infrastructural facilities such as drinking water, proper sanitation, teaching equipment and teachers were identified as areas that need attention.

Low levels of education amongst women and disadvantaged groups

Low levels of education and training aggravate the state of deprivation of women. The literacy levels of women are low (50% in 1997) as compared to men (73% in 1997). There are also large regional disparities in literacy rates. The literacy rate amongst scheduled castes and scheduled tribes over the years has shown a steady increase but a wide gulf remains between the SC/ST population and the rest of the country (Planning Commission, 2001b).

Poor quality of higher education

Although the number of universities has increased over time, many of these are characterized by low educational standards. The scheme of vocationalization of education has not taken off in the country, due to logistic and academic constraints, and lack of industry-institution linkages. In addition, there is a need to augment quality education in the streams of science and information technology.

Lack of adequate housing infrastructure

The shortage of the housing has increased over the decade (1981-1991). As per the 1991 census, the total rural household shortage was 13.72 million. Of these 3.41 million households were without shelter and 10.31 million households were living in `Kutcha unserviceable’ houses. National Buildings Organization (NBO) estimated the urban housing shortage at 8.23 million in 1991 from 7 million in 1980. Another fallout of the absence of structured housing schemes for the urban poor is the rapid growth of slums causing tremendous pressure on urban basic services and infrastructure.

Gender discrimination

Gender discrimination is reflected in the sex ratio 946 females per 1000 males in 1951 which fell to 927 females per 1000 males in 1991; though the sex ratio for the country as a whole has shown a marginal improvement to 933 in 2001, most states, except Kerala and Pondichery (a parity sex ratio of 1058 and 1001, respectively), have shown declining sex ratios. Gender discrimination is also manifested in the rising incidence of crimes against women (68,317 in 1990 to 121,265 in 1997 (Planning Commission, 2001b).

Strategies for the social sector

Cognisant of the above concerns, the government will seek to redress them as is indicated in the Approach Paper to the Tenth Five-Year Plan. The document explicitly recognizes that development objectives need to be defined not just in terms of increases in GDP or per capita income but in broader terms of the enhancement of human well being. This includes not just adequate level of consumption of food and other types of consumer goods but also access to basic social services especially education, health, availability of drinking water and basic sanitation. It also includes the expansion of economic and social opportunities for all individuals and groups, reduction in disparities, and greater participation in decision-making. Accordingly, the document proposes to set targets not only for economic growth but specific state-level monitorable targets for key indicators of human development. The document also recognizes the interlinkages between economic development, social progress and environmental management—economic development which destroys the environment will create more poverty, unemployment and disease—and accordingly places emphasis on environmental protection. Some of the strategies directly related to the social sector in the areas of poverty alleviation, employment, health and interests of special groups are briefly discussed below.

Growth, equity and sustainability

While growth per se has strong direct poverty reducing effects, the frictions and rigidities in parts of the economy can make this process less effective, thereby necessitating that equity is explicitly addressed. The approach paper proposes to do so through:

• Focus on agricultural development as the core element of growth to ensure the widest spread of benefits, especially to the rural poor including agricultural labour, given that agriculture still accounts for 60% of the employment in the country.
• Rapid growth of those sectors that are most likely to create high quality employment opportunities such as construction, transport, small-scale industry, tourism. Redressal of policy constraints that discourage the growth of employment. The strategy will be to emphasize skill development in order to enhance opportunities and ensure consistency between the requirement and availability of skills.
• Continue to supplement the benefits of growth with special programmes aimed at target groups—women, backward classes, tribal communities etc.—which may not benefit sufficiently from the growth process.

Population and health

The government remains committed to improving the health status of the population through better access to quality health-care (including reproductive health care) facilities. The focus will be on reorganizing and restructuring existing health care infrastructure at the primary, secondary and tertiary level, to ensure that the delivery mechanism adequately and efficiently covers the population in the defined geographical area, with appropriate referral linkages. This would also involve adequate provision of drugs, equipment and competent manpower; skill upgradation of health personnel; increasing awareness of the community through health education; and greater involvement of local bodies to facilitate local planning and monitoring and ensure local accountability of public health care providers. There will also have to be a continued commitment to provide essential primary health care and emergency life-saving services under the National Family Welfare programme and National Disease Control programmes free of cost to the poor while evolving a system for levying and collecting user charges from people above the poverty line. In addition, it will be necessary to improve centre-state and inter-sectoral coordination, and involve the private sector, voluntary institutions and civil society to support national efforts in achieving the goals of the National Population Policy, 2000. In the area of nutrition, the strategy will be to move beyond food supplementation to monitoring growth itself, including screening pre-natal women, in order to identify onset under-nutrition and initiate appropriate health and nutritional interventions.

Education

Universal access to primary education and improvement of basic school infrastructure will receive a high priority. This would mean a school available within 1 km of every habitation with adequate staff, textbooks provided to all SCs/STs, children and girls, mid-day meals, management and repair of school buildings, opportunities for non-formal and alternative education for out-of school children in backward and inaccessible segments of the population. Integral to these objectives would be mobilization of local communities for promotion of primary education and adult literacy and greater control of local bodies and community groups over schools and teachers to ensure accountability and need-based education.

The quality of higher education will also be addressed by modernization of syllabi, examination reforms and greater attention to issues of internal generation of financial resources, governance of universities and colleges and setting up of colleges and universities outside of the public sector. These considerations would also apply to the technical educational system—technical and management education need to be managed strategically in order to provide a broad-based, multi-disciplinary education incorporating composite skills and knowledge which will meet the challenges of globalization.

Special attention to the needs of vulnerable groups including tribal communities, Scheduled Castes, and Other Backward Classes

The government will remain committed to improving the standard of living of vulnerable groups and minimize the divergence with respect to the general population through the promotion of special facilities and programmes. Attention will also be given to strengthening and expansion of safety nets for these groups especially women and the aged. The Government is committed towards holistic empowerment of women for which several programmes such as Swayamsidha (an integrated scheme for women’s empowerment) have been formulated. Its long term objective is all-round empowerment by ensuring direct access to and control over resources through a sustained process of mobilisation and convergence of all on-going sectoral programmes.

In short, the strategy would be to strengthen implementation of existing programmes; converge multiple programmes to improve efficiency; diversify the rural economy; enhance the skill sets of labour to conform to the needs of the market; rationalize the subsidy regime; empower women and the socially disadvantaged and facilitate the active involvement of local bodies and the community to promote local planning and monitoring of programmes. The focus on human development will go a long way towards the objective of growth ensuring equity and sustainability.

Census of India. 2001

MoHRD

Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India

http://www.education.nic.in/

MoHRD. 2002

Annual Report 2001-2002

Department of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. 293 pp.

MoF.2002

Economic Survey 2001/02

New Delhi: Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

MoHFW

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India

http://mohfw.nic.in/

MoRD. 2001

Annual Report 2000/01

New Delhi: Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.

National AIDS Control Organisation web site

http://naco.nic.in/vsnaco/indiascene/esthiv.htm

Planning Commission. 2001a

Indian planning experience: a statistical profile

New Delhi: Planning Commission, Government of India. 221 pp.

Planning Commission. 2001b

Approach Paper to the Tenth Five-Year Plan

Planning Commission. 2001c

Mid term Appraisal of Ninth Five-Year Plan (1997-2002)

New Delhi: Planning Commission, Government of India. 510 pp.

Planning Commission. 2002

National Human Development report

New Delhi: Planning Commission, Government of India. 297 pp.

World Bank. 1992

Gender and Poverty in India, World Bank Country Study

Washington, DC: The World Bank. 373 pp.

Eighth Five-Year Plan: 1992-1997

Vol. 2: Thematic Issues and Sectoral Programmes

New Delhi: Planning Commission. 480 pp.

Ninth Five-Year Plan: 1997-2002

Vol. 2: Thematic Issues and Sectoral Programmes

New Delhi: Planning Commission. 1059 pp.

[1] Poverty line is defined as the average per capita consumption expenditure which enables specified calorie requirements to be met (Planning Commission)

[2] There are inter-state variations in these trends. For instance, IMR varies from a figure of less than 50 per 1000 live births for Goa, Kerala, Tamilnadu and Mizoram to a figure of nearly 100 per 1000 live births for Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa.

[3] Ministry of Health and Family Welfare web site: http://www.mohfw.nic.in

[4] http://naco.nic.in/vsnaco/indiascene/esthiv.htm

[5] Also refer to Chapter 7 on Water resources and Chapter 15 on Urban governance and services