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This article provides information about the post-emergency planning of women’s development in India !
The period between 1977 and 1980 witnessed significant policy review exercises by the government. Among them were the Report of the Working Group on Employment of Women, Report of the Working Group on Development of Village Level Organisations of Rural Women, 1977-78, Report of the National Committee on the Role and Participation of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development.
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These review exercises constituted a substantive base to the conceptualising of fundamental problems and strategies for women’s development in India. The Indian agenda of women’s development got incorporated into the United Nations’ mid-decade Programme of Action, mediated through the Non- aligned Movements, special Conference on Women and Development in Baghdad, 1979.
India gained membership of the Commission on the Status of Women and the preparatory committee for Mid- Decade Copenhagen Conference and Programme of Action. India’s contribution to the emphasis on developing world perspectives on development was acknowledged during the mid-decade conference and there was the consequent adoption of employment, health and education as a sub-theme of the decade’s agenda.
Vina Mazumdar’s examination of the conceptual approach enrolled through these few years identified women’s development needs as having multiple dimensions, cutting across economic, social and political sectors requiring explicit examination of women’s situation on various sectors. She called for earmarking of a share of various sectoral allocations for women, instead of limiting it to women specific programmes or agencies. She also called for promotion of rural employment and development. Through women’s own collective organisation, organisations such as SEWA, etc. which were paining the way towards such path.
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The Sixth Five-Year Plan released in December. 1979 marked a new beginning as it included a separate Unit on women. Till this time, women’s concerns were always subsumed under sectoral approaches in health, education, rural development, agriculture, etc. This Unit was a first attempt at a holistic planning for women. It stated that the objective of population control could not be achieved without bringing about major changes in the status of women.
This Plan suggested the need for “administrative innovation” and the “collection of sex-wise distribution data on development assistance, thereby urging for better information, together with mechanisms to ensure women receiving their “due share” of government’s attention and support and “equal opportunity for growth and distributive justice”.
These principles of women’s involvement in the planning process also sought to extend support for organisation of rural women similar to organisations of the rural poor in the effort to improve their “bargaining power and access to development assistance”. However, the new Planning Commission set up in 1980 reverted women back to the social services and put on hold the outward looking strategies, approaches and perspectives developed for women.
However, the intervention at this stage, by the national women’s organisation, made a definite impact upon the planning process. A period of partnership began between the few cells on women that had been set up within the Ministries of Labour and Employment, Social Welfare and Rural Development, and the growing women’s movement and women studies scholars.
Seven women’s organisations got together to submit a joint memorandum in 1980, gathered support from women members of the Parliament and thereby persuaded the Planning Commission to incorporate a Unit on Women and Development in the Sixth Plan. This was a landmark achievement in India’s Planning history.