15.4.8 Despite the constitutional guarantees and specific legislations to protect the interests of women, they continue t suffer because of ignorance of their legal rights, strong social resistance to giving women their due share, lack of legal aid facilities and near-absence of strong women's groups in rural areas which can protect their interest. Socio-cultural traditions continue to assign a subordinate role to women, particularly in rural areas, subjecting the girl child to discrimination of various kinds, including the killing of unborn female foetus after prenatal sex determination test. The menace of dowry continues unabated, despite the legislation prohibiting dowry and prescribing stringent measures for violating the law. Violence against women, including that in the domestic sphere, continues to brutalise their existence as evident from rape and dowry- related cruelty and murder cases. For instance, out of 9,752 rape cases reported in 1989, the victims were below 10 years of age in 369 cases. There were 4, 205 reported cases of dowry related deaths.
Strategy for the Eighth Plan 15.5.1. The strategy in the Eighth Plan will be to ensure that the benefits of development from different sectors do not bypass women and special programmes are implemented to complement the general development programmes. The latter, in turn, should reflect greater gender senstivity. The flow of benefits to women in education, health and employment need to be monitored. Women must be enabled to function as equal partners and participants in development and not merely as beneficiaries of various schemes. Extending the reach of services to women, both quantitatively and qualitatively, will be an important objective of the Eighth Plan. Socio-cultural and administrative constraints to the realisation of women's full potential need to be removed and there has to be greater societal awareness of their contribution to national well-being. The media, both mass and folk, will be assigned an important role. Voluntary agencies will be supported in their advocacy and social
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activism programmes for gender equality and prevention of atrocities on women. Panchayati Raj institutions will be involved in the designing and implementation of women's programmes.
15.5.2 A more holistic view of women's role in the family and society would be conceived as opposed to the perception of a restricted role of motherhood and home maker. The issues relating to women will be integrated in the total development endeavours. The different Ministries would allocate resources in a manner that the benefits flow to women.
15.5.3 A major thrust in the strategy for women's development will be on the formation and strengthening of grassroot level women's groups, which will articulate local women's needs and play an important role in decentralised planning and implementation of programmes. Services for women under various programmes of employment, education, health care, family welfare, drinking water and nutrition would be made available at the grassroot level in the form of a package through convergence and integration.
15.5.4 Adolescent girls, out of the school system, have been a neglected category in the matter of reach of social services. Their developmental needs will require special attention in order to prepare them for adult roles. Special programmes would be developed for adolescent and young girls as these groups have generally suffered on account of poor nutrition lack of health care, education and training and restrictive social customs and practices.
15.5.5 The existing legal safeguards for women against injustice and atrocities need to be reviewed, loopholes removed and their imple- mentation monitored. One of the basic requirements for improving the status of women is to bring about changes in the laws relating to inheritance of property to fully protect the interests of women and enable them to get an equal share in the parental property, whether inherited or self-acquired. Social legislations for women will be effectively enforced with the help of women's groups. A National Commission on Women has recently been set up to act as a watch dog body on matters concerning women. A Commissioner of Women's Rights will be appointed.
15.5.6 It is equally important to usher in changes in societal attitudes and perceptions in regard to the role of women in different spheres of life. This will be facilitated by the empowerment of women and will imply adjustments in traditional gender specific performance of tasks. Mass media and inter-personal communication techniques will be extensively utilised to achieve these ends.
Employment 15.5.7 Women, who form nearly half of the population, will be recognised as a target group in the promotion of employment. The employment strategy for women will be integrated with the respective sectoral planning. It will be based on promotion of opportunities for self-employment and creation of wage employment. A better deal for the women work force in the unorganised sector would require encouragement to the formation of producers' groups and cooperatives. This would help improve their bargaining power and access to inputs. Special, condensed, job-oriented courses will be organised for women. District federations and associations of women's groups will be encouraged to train village women and help them secure technical support, credit and marketing facilities.
15.5.8 Attempts would be made to expand women's employment in the household sector by providing adequate support in the areas of tech- nology upgradation, training, credit, raw materials, and marketing. A decentralised approach for providing these facilities will help considerably in the expansion of women's employment in these sectors.
15.5.9 The existing poverty alleviation programmes like IRDP, TRYSEM and Jawahar Rozgar Yojana would ensure that the target set for women beneficiaries is reached. The scheme of Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) would be strengthened. Greater flexibility will be provided in the areas of training inputs for organisational and managerial skills and support for raw materials, marketing and services from the departments concerned.
15.5.10 The programmes of training women in soil conservation, dairy development, social forestry and other occupations allied to agricul-
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ture like sericulture, dairying, horticulture and poultry will be expanded. The existing syllabi will be reviewed to make the training more relevant to the needs of women. Extension services will be modified and strenthened, keeping in mind women's role as producer. Special efforts will be made to cover a larger number of women under extension services. The number of women extension workers will be increased. They would actively assist rural women to take advantage of the schemes and training programmes and help in the formation of cooperatives and Mahila Mandals.
15.5.11 In the programmes of agricultural production, emphasis would have be laid on implementation of land reforms, restructuring of agrarian institutions and promotion of rural industries. In this context, the role of women in agricultural production has to be given due recognition. Women's control over economic resources and services will have to be encouraged as a large number of women are heading rural households. Measures would be necessary to distribute surplus land to women-headed house-holds as well and titles granted to women in the allotment of house sites as also in respect of other productive assets. For married women, joint titles would be desirable for productive assets, houses and house sites.
15.5.12 Vocational training of women will be a special thrust area. The training programmes for women in the ITIs and other training institutions will be diversified and expanded. New areas with a high employment potential will be identified. Part-time and short-term courses will be organised as per the local needs of industries. Women will be encouraged in new expanding areas of technical education such as electronics, computer systems, bio-engineering, communications and media.
15.5.13 Women in rural areas spend a large part of the day in procuring fuel, fodder, food and water for the family. Measures will be taken to reduce the element of drudgery throught improved sanitary and environmental conditions, smokeless chullahs, bio-gas plants, solar cookers and other low cost technologies.
Nutrition 15.5.14 Deprived of proper nourishment and health care since childhood, women in our country remain underweight and suffer form nutritional anaemia. Efforts would be made to bring about a change in the discriminatory attitude of the society with regard to the food intake of females within the family and in the traditional beliefs and practices, wherever prevalent, with regard to the nutritional needs of women. It would be necessary to facilitate women's access to, and control over income and use of locally available foods so as to ensure adequate nutrition, particularly iron and iodine intake. Nutrition programmes will lay emphasis on nutrition education, particularly increasing the awareness about the nutritional needs of women especially during infancy, adolescence, preganancy and breastfeeding of the newborn.
15.5.15 Mass media would play a major role in spreading the message regarding women's nutrition. Documentary films, video tapes and audio- cassettes will be produced and transmitted through television, radio, cinema and other communication channels. Booklets and pamphlets will be produced on a large scale for the comunity. Exhibitions on the theme `Women's Nutrition and Health' will be organised in rural, tribal and urban slum areas. Camps and short-term nutrition training programmes will be arranged for women, adolescent girls, women's organisations and school girls by trained ICDS workers, ANMs, teachers, memebers of mahila mandals and informal channels. For effective implementation of training programmes, educational material will be produced in local languages.
15.5.16 Local women's organisations and adolescent girls would be encouraged to promote participation of women in the monitoring of nutrition care and social support meassures for them. Nutrition education programme would be linked with other programmes like family planning, environmental sanitation, potable water supply, ecological balance, horticulture, kitchen garden, education and training for income generation.
Education 15.5.17 Education of women is a critical input for improving nutrition levels, raising the age at marriage, acceptance of family planning, improvement in self image, and their empowerment. Experience of voluntary organistions and some of the innovative Government pro-
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grammes have shown that a group of motivated women can be effective instruments for mobilising the community for women's education. Emphasis will be laid in the Eighth Plan on creation of conditions which would enable women to participate in the educational process in a more meaningful way.
15.5.18 Retention of girls in school upto elementary stage will be pursued as an important objective. Universalisation of education would comprise not merely universal enrolment but also universal participation. Provision of school uniforms and other incentives would improve the enrolment of girls in rural areas, particularly in educationally backward States. Since girls find it difficult to go long distances to attend schools, it is necessary to have schools in the vicinity of the villages. Non-formal centres for girls' education, flexible timings and literacy programmes will involve women's groups. Flexible modules for education and condensed courses would be designed for rural girls and women. Women's access to science education has to be improved and this would require careful planning to generate a pool of trained mathematics and science teachers. Institutional mechanisms will be developed so that the teachers are made to feel responsible to the community. Adult female education will be promoted, a process which will also help in the enrolment and retention of young girls and children in the school system.
15.5.19 Appointment of female teachers would be of great help in improving the attendance of girls in schools. Although the proportion of female teachers, according to the Fifth All India Educational Survey, has reached 30 per cent, their number is still inadequate in rural areas. In order to induct local women as teachers, relaxation in educational qualifications may have to be made in some areas.
15.5.20 At the secondary and higher stages of education, it will be necessary to provide diversified courses in technical fields such as agriculture, health services, food production activities like dairy, food preservation, poultry etc. Correspondence courses and self-study programmes for girls and open school system would be expanded.
Science and Technology 15.5.21 Application of science and technology is vital for the advancement of women. Technology should reduce household drudgery and provide better working conditions for women, particularly in rural areas. Science and technology should aim at improvement of the environment and quality of' life of women at an affordable cost. At present, although women are represented in science and medical courses to an appreciable degree, the number engaged in scientific professions is perceptibly low at the higher levels of research and management. This may be because such professions make a heavy demand on time and energy, which women may find difficult to devote on account of their responsibilities at home. Efforts would be made to encourage part- time employment for women. Relaxations which will permit married women to leave the work force and seek re-entry at a later date would be necessary so that she can fulfil her child caring responsibilities and also her career ambitions.
Welfare 15.5.22 A number of programmes for self-employment would be supported under social welfare, sector. High priority will be given to improve the incomes of women and skill formation. The existing scheme of "Support to Training-cum-Employment Programmes" (STEP) for implementation of projects seeking to provide training and employment to women in agriculture and allied activities will be strengthened. The Central Social Welfare Board's scheme of assisting voluntary organisations to provide work and wages to poor women will be continued. The scheme "Employment-cum- Income Generating Training-cum-Production Centres", with the assistance of NORAD, will be consolidated. The activities of women development corporations as guarantors and promoters of credit to poor women or groups of women will continue. The corporations will also provide marketing and managerial facilities to participating women. To meet the credit needs of women producers, special institutional arrangements will be made by streamlining the existing lending procedures of ban" and cooperative societies, removing bottlenecks for women borrowers and setting up a national credit fund for women.
15.5.23 Condensed courses of education and vocational training will be strengthened to bene-
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fit women and girls in rural and backward areas in a large way. Hostel facilities for working women with creche facilities will be increased for women migrating to towns, cities and metropolitan areas for employment. Relaxations will be made in the income ceiling and duration of stay of working women in hostels.
15.5.24 Priority will be given to generation of awareness about the need for improving women's status. Mass communication and folk media will be effectively geared to this end. Programmes will be produced highlighting women's issues. The positive role models of women as cultivators, enterpreneurs and managers will be projected. Women's colleges and universities and women's study centres will be encouraged to take up awareness generation activities through publication of women's journals and research on women's issues.
15.5.25 Programmes will be designed for destitute women and women in distress by providing the necessary rehabilitation measures to make them economically self-sufficient. Special projects will be developed for economic rehabilitation of socially disadvantaged groups of women like devadasis and prostitutes.
15.5.26 Awareness and knowledge about the legal provisions and infrastructure for availing these are extremely important. Programmes for generation of legal awareness would, therefore, be initiated. Legal aid will be extended. In order to ensure effective implementaion of legal provisions, orientation and training of personnel will be given due importance.
15.5.27 Voluntary organisations will be promoted and supported to accelerate the process of women's development. Areas will be identified where the voluntary sector is weak. Efforts will be made to promote and stimulate agencies to work in such areas. Grants-in- aid procedures will be streamlined to reduce delays in releasing grants. Voluntary organisations will be involved in the designing of programmes as well as their implementation. Policy research and evaluation will be supported and the findings widely disseminated so that the improvements needed in policies and programmes can be more clearly articulated.
CHILD DEVELOPMENT 15.6.1 Children constitute the nation's future human resource. Investment in child development is thus an investment in the country's future and in improving the nation's quality of life. The early years are a very delicate period and require well-designed programmes for the child's survival, growth and development. Deficiencies during this stage can lead to permanent retardation in physical and mental growth. The fact that children have neither a voice nor a political constituency assigns a greater resonsibility to adults to plan for child development.
15.6.2 The Indian Constitution contains several provisions for protection, development and welfare of children. Article 24 prohibits the employment of children in any factory or mine or in any other hazardous occupation. Articles 39(e) and (f) lay down that the State shall direct its policy in such a manner that the tender age of children is not abused, children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and childhood is protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.
15.6.3 The population of children below 15 years as per the 1981 census was 263 million with 75 per cent living in rural areas. The Expert Committee on Population Projections (1989) projected 301 million persons of less than 15 years in 1990 (36.40 per cent of the population) of which 22.5 million (2.72 per cent) are less than 1 year (infants), 44.2 million (5.34 per cent) are in the age group 1-2 years (toddlers) and 63.7 million (7.70 per cent) are in the age group 3-5 years (pre-school). These numbers, when seen in the context of about 30 per cent of population below the poverty line as per 1987-88 estimates, give an indication of the magnitude of the tasks that lie ahead.