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This article provides information about the role of seventh five-year plan towards women development in India !
The Seventh Five-Year Plan emphasised provision of gainful employment to women and youth. It reiterated strategies of organising women around socio-economic activities in order to succeed in the twin objectives of making their projects economically viable and also of adding social strength to enhance their overall status.
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For the first time, there was use of “feminist language”, as against the predominantly patriarchal preference to confine women to an oppressive environment. This period that coincided with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s gruesome assassination, was a period of change within the government.
It was however, a period of optimism for women’s cause both inside and outside the government. The Government of India hosted the 2nd NAM Conference on Women and Development to offer inputs to the end of Decade UN Conference which was to be held at Nairobi. India’s approaches, both official and unofficial, at the ILO sponsored Afro- Asian Conference on Rural Women’s Organisations and Development, earned encouraging appreciation. The Department of Rural Development announced a 30% quota for women in anti-poverty programmes for rural areas. Steps were taken to initiate gender sensitisation as a mandatory part of training of rural development officials.
The new government at the centre formed a full Department of Women and Child Development, under the Ministry of Human Resources. It included the development of education, culture, sports and youth affairs among women. Pressures from the women’s movement and internal struggle within government led to the incorporation of two paragraphs on Education for Women’s Equality with the National Policy on Education. For the first time, a message appeared that together with expanding women’s access to all kinds of education, the system with all its institutions, had to shoulder a major responsibility for genuine empowerment of women, through change in the social construction of gender.
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Yet another breakthrough in this Plan period was the issue of effective representation of women in Panchayati Raj institutions. Initially the CSWI’s recommendations in this regard had been shelved. Efforts were made to begin a debate on them by the Secretary, Social Welfare from January, 1985. The results took shape in two years time. Preparations for a National Perspective Plan (NPP) for Women were started under the aegis of the Department of Women and Child Development. The National Commission for Self Employed Women (NCSEW) was set up to articulate the problems, needs and aspirations of working women in this poverty sector. The NPP wanted an increase in women’s participation and presence at decision-making levels — in local self- government bodies, State Assemblies and Parliament and suggested 30% reservations at all these levels.
The NPP was heavily critiqued by the women’s movements. Finally the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments came about in 1992. They conferred constitutional status on these bodies, mandated regular elections, wider powers/resources and reserved one-third of seats for women at various levels of the local bodies.
On the issue of reservation for women, the women’s movement organisations rejected suggestions of nomination to build up a critical mass as undemocratic and subversive of the constitution. They also rejected reservation in State Assemblies and Parliament. However, in the case of the Panchayats and Municipalities, demand was made for achievement of a critical mass, which could throw up new leadership and new concerns from the more marginalised sections.
Part I of the Plan document mentions women only in the context of the need for population control. In Part I of the Sectoral units, mention is made of women only in contest of women-specific programmes. The principles of a women’s quota or an earmarked share of allocations are not mentioned.
The new features in the section of women’s development include a paragraph on violence against women and a two-page “Situational Analysis”, which highlights the problems of higher mortality, lower education and increasing unemployment of women, the conceptual, methodological and perception biases regarding value of women’s work, compounded by women’s concentration in the informal sector resulting in casualisation, non-protection of labour laws and inaccessibility to credit, technology and other types of development assistance. The girl child got a paragraph for the first time, with the promise of “special programmes”.
The National Commission for Women Act was passed in 1990 whereby the autonomous national commission for women was set up through an enactment act to act as a statutory ombudsperson for women, reviewing laws and policies and intervening selectively in individual cases of violation and denial of women’s rights. In 1991, the National Plan of action for the Girl child set up time-bound recommendations for the survival, protection, development and participation of girl-children, with emphasis on non-discrimination and the universality and indivisibility of rights. The draft National Policy for Empowerment of Women put together policy directives for securing gender justice and gender equality and for the mainstreaming of gender considerations.