13.27 Women's welfare: The welfare programmes for women aim at providing those essential services for women which are not available to them under the general development programmes. The highest priority will be given to programmes extending opportunities to women for gainful employment. A new scheme, namely, Women's Development Corporations, would be taken up, through equity participation on a 50: 50 basis between the State and the Centre, for promoting employment- generating activities for women's groups and women from the weaker sections. The main functions of the Corporations would include identification of potential areas of employment, assistance to beneficiaries in project formulation, raising the requisite finances, arranging raw materials, providing consultation services, creating an infrastructure for the marketing of products and other services which would promote economic development for women through gainful activity. The 'Socio-Economic Programme, which aims at providing opportunity for work and wages' to needy women and disabled persons by setting up small units, e.g., ancillaries to large industries, handloom/handicrafts units, agro-based units, etc. would be continued and steps would be taken to make the schemes bankable in order to attract more institutional finance and for a large coverage of beneficiaries under employment. The scheme of 'Condensed Courses of Education and Vocational Training for Adult Women,' would be expanded to prepare the target group for public examinations upto matriculation/higher secondary level,
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and would impart training in vocations with a high employment potential. Measures would be taken to enhance the competence of the teaching staff/training institutions. Assistance for construction of 'Hostels for Working Women' to provide safe, suitable and healthy accommodation to women who migrate to urban areas for employment would be extended to more areas. Training courses of short duration would be organised for rehabilitation of destitute women in various vocations and trades of non-traditional nature. The implementing agencies would ensure their rehabilitation after the completion of training. Rural women would be encouraged to form themselves into a group/society to take up welfare activities in those areas where no such organisations exist, and bring about an awareness of social responsibility among the women of the region.
13.28 The Central Social Welfare Board, which is a Central organisation responsible for promoting and strengthening of voluntary effort, would pay attention to motivating more organisations to undertake welfare programmes for children, women and the handicapped. It would make efforts to identify voluntary organisations all over the country, and provide them with the required organisational and financial assistance. Necessary training for voluntary workers would be imparted at appropriate institutions. Field counselling services would be developed for offering technical assistance and guidance in order to improve the working efficiency of the voluntary organisations.
13.29 Welfare of the handicapped: The main thrust in the programme for welfare of the handicapped will be on prevention of disabilities and development of functional skills among the handicapped. A larger number of disabilities are preventable, if timely measures are taken in the areas of health and nutrition and accident prevention. Besides strengthening the activities of immunisation/ prophylaxis against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus, nutritional anaemia and blindness due to Vitamin 'A' deficiency, vaccination against polio and typhoid and the provision of nutritional supplements, education in health and nutrition will be given priority. Suitable measures to prevent and control disabilities caused by accidents will be taken. A programme of mass education for early identification of disabilities and the symptoms causing them will be intensified.
13.30 Simple, durable and inexpensive aids and appliances would be made available to handicapped persons so that they can become functional and useful citizens. The National Institute for Rehabilitation, Training and Research (NIRTR), earlier known as National Institute of Prosthetic and Orthotic Training (NIPOT), will continue to conduct training courses for prosthetic and orthotic technicians, multi-rehabilitation assistance, doctors and other professionals. When awarding scholarships to handicapped persons, stress would be laid on vocational training, which has better employment potential. Training schemes would be so devised as to impart adequate vocational skills leading to employment in the open market or to self-employment. Sheltered workshops for the severely handicapped will seek to supplement those efforts. Suitable arrangements are envisaged for organising supply of raw materials and for marketing their products. Employment officers specialising in placement of handicapped persons are proposed to be added in all employment exchanges with registration of 150 or more handicapped persons. Incentives would continue to encourage disabled workers to improve their standard of performance to persuade employers to accept physically handicapped persons. The scheme of District Rehabilitation Centres (DRC), which aims at providing comprehensive and integrated care services to the handicapped individual from early childhood till he is rehabilitated in the community, is being taken up at present on a pilot basis. Further expansion would be taken up after the programme is evaluated. Grants-in-aid will continue to be given to voluntary organisations for purchase of equipment and improvement of standards of services for the handicapped.
13.31 The activities of the four national institutes for the handicapped, i.e., one each for the visually handicapped, orthopaedically handicapped, hearing handicapped and mentally handicapped, working in the field of training, research, vocational guidance and development of suitable service models for the disabled, would be strengthened, based on the latest research and developments taking place, both inside and outside the country. These institutes would continuously evaluate the existing technology and explore new methodologies for promoting the optimum utilisation of the capabilities of the handicapped, so that their occupational options are widened, with resultant improvement in their social independence.
13.32 Social defence: In order to raise the quality of social defence services on the basis of certain well defined norms and to keep abreast of newly emerging forms and trends of criminality a comprehensive approach towards preventive treatment and rehabilitative services is envisaged. Greater stress would be laid on the creation of public awareness regarding social legislation enacted to safeguard the rights and interest of children, women and other catogories of socially handicapped persons. Efforts would be made to provide services under the Children's Act in a judicious manner to all the areas of the country. Keeping in view the growing menace of juvenile maladjustment and delinquency, a new scheme, viz., Prevention and Control of Juvenile Maladjustment with optimum use of community based services will be taken up through the States and Union Territories as a Centrally Sponsored
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Scheme on a pilot basis in few selected urban areas. This would include a variety of programmes such as counselling and guidance, family life education, organised recreation, etc. Similarly another scheme, 'Welfare of Prisoners,' would be taken up to strengthen the correctional content of prison programme through the provision of educational and vocational training, after-care services and training of personnel. These two new schemes are aimed at evolving appropriate models for the prevention and treatment of delinquency and crime in keeping with the realities of the socio-cultural and economic life of the people. Besides, an added thrust would be given to the protection of women in moral and social danger, and the scheme of Short Stay Homes would be expanded moderately to cover helpless victims.
13.33 In dealing with the various social defence programmes, National Institute of Social Defence (NISD) will lay stress on the areas of research and evaluation, training of functionaries and consultancy for official and nonofficial implementing agencies.
13.34 Prohibition: Recent studies indicate that the consumption of narcotics, alcoholic drinks and addictive drugs which are deleterious to physical and mental health is on the increase, particularly among the younger age-groups. The intemperate use of these addictives has brought in its wake a variety of undesirable consequences, and even economic ruin to many poor families. These would have to be discouraged with sustained propaganda and community education through the mass media, particularly television and films. Local bodies, voluntary agencies and communities would be encouraged to undertake educational work on a wider scale for the promotion of temperance and avoidance of consumption of alcoholic beverages. Intensive efforts would be initiated for preventing the brewing and drinking of illicit liquor by the vulnerable sections of the population.
13.35 Mass education: Social problems are closely associated with traditional attitudes, beliefs and ignorance prevailing among the people. Some of these have worked as major constraints on proper implementation of different development and welfare schemes. The Information and Mass Education Cell functioning at the national level would continue to accelerate its efforts for creating community awareness and public opinion against social evils. It would identify the relevant material and prepare inputs for various media like television and radio in addition to undertaking printed publicity work. It would maintain a regular liaison with the media units.
13.36 Social welfare in the State Sector: In the State sector, the social welfare programmes are variegated, depending upon the nature and magnitude of the prevailing social problems in the different regions. In all these programmes, utmost importance would be given to education, training and rehabilitation services so as to enable the concerned target group to become self-reliant. Institutional care will be provided only where it is necessary. Child welfare will continue to receive high priority. The States and Union Territories would be encouraged to undertake additional ICDS projects on the Central pattern to cover more children, pregnant women and nursing mothers with a Package of nutrition and health services. Efforts would be continued to provide creches/ day care services for children of working women, with increased emphasis on improvement in health and nutrition linkages. In income-generating activities such as craft training, training-cum-production centres etc., meant for needy women and handicapped persons, stress would be laid on diversification and introduction of new trades/ vocations keeping in view the availability of local raw material and market needs. The Women's Finance and Development Corporations in certain States have proved very useful in helping women to take up bankable projects, and thereby raising their income status. The feasibility of similar programmes in other States/UTs would be explored.
13.37 The schemes of orthotic and prosthetic aids to physically handicapped persons would be expanded further with adequate facilities of fitting centres. Educational incentives like scholarships/stipends, book grants, uniforms etc., are envisaged to improve the enrolement ratio of physically handicapped children at the primary and middle levels. This would help them to avail of higher level educational facilities and related job opportunities.
13.38 The services envisaged under various legislations such as juvenile courts, children's homes, remand/ observation homes, certified schools, rescue homes, beggar homes would require to be strengthened, keeping in view the increasing problems of juvenile delinquency, trafficking in women and girls and beggary in the country. The States and UTs would be requested to adopt the progessive features of the Central Children's Act. Financial assistance would continue to be provided to voluntary organisations for undertaking institutional and noninstitutional services for the affected groups. It would be impressed upon the States and UTs that they should develop suitable technical competence at different levels, so as to identify and assess the emerging social problems in particular areas, and suggest and devise ways to overcome such problems.
13.39 Research: For ensuring better results from the programmes under implementation, research and evaluation studies would be sponsored/taken up, and statistical data collected in the priority areas, keeping in view the Plan policies and social problems. Problems related to child development would be studied in the context of the social-cultural milieu to the regions, and required changes.
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or modifications brought about in the child welfare services. Studies would be taken up to identify problems in the area of child labour, particularly in the unorganised sector, and also those engaged in hazardous occupations. Problems of displacement of women due to the introduction of new technologies in identifiable areas, and causes for the decline of employment of women in certain sectors would have to be investigated. The problems of mortality and morbidity among female babies and the impact of malnutrition among pregnant women and on the health of the babies and mothers also need to be analysed. The needs of continuing education with a view to promoting formation of skills and employment would have to be studied and areas of vocationalisation suitable specifically for women identified. The gaps and the needs under various training and rehabilitation programmes for the handicapped would need to be assessed by initiating micro level studies. The grants-in-aid programme would be reviewed for further simplification and avoidance of delays in the sanctioning and disbursement of assistance.
13.40 Research studies relating to the spread of the usage of drugs and aloholic drinks among students, industrial workers and other vulnerable sections will be supported on a wider scale. The efficacy of the Children's Acts in terms of level of services provided would be studied. Various pieces of social legislation concerning dowry, prohibition, equal renumeration, excise policy in tribal areas etc. have been in force for quite some time. The impact of such legislations on the intended target groups and the adequacy/inadequacy of various provisions thereunder in the light of experience would be analysed.
13.41 The role of people's participation and their awareness of various legislations would also have to be assessed in order to make social legislations more effective. Most of the State Govts. have enacted legislation for the prevention of beggary and have taken up a number of schemes for training and rehabilitation of beggars. The cost effectiveness of these programmes and their successful implementation would also have to be studied in order to formulate the training and the rehabilitation programmes based on the needs of the inmates in the beggar homes.
13.42 The linkages and mechanism for effective application of science and technology would be established with a view to tackle the problems of physical disabilities, drudgery in women's work, preservation of polio vaccines etc. Studies would be taken up on the development of modification/selection of aids and appliances for disabled persons, household equipment and gadgets for women, portable containers for storage of vaccine and other similar aspects.
13.43 Administration and monitoring: The Administrative machinery, both at the Central and State levels, will be strengthened. In the States, emphasis would be on bringing the administration of social welfare programmes under the department wherever this arrangement does not exist. Alternatively, an attempt would be made to take steps for effective coordination to achieve a unified approach and direction in planning and implementation. Induction of professional staff and expansion of in-service training, will be given due attention for improving the technical skills needed for project identification, formulation, implementation and monitoring.
13.44 Monitoring of various Plan programmes would be given more importance, as this is a prerequisite for taking up any modifications/corrections in the schemes. This aspect would also be given attention at the district and other lower levels. Provision has also been made for setting up a 'Women's Development, Planning and Monitoring Cell' at the national level to monitor the Central and State programmes being implemented under various sectors for women's development.
Outlays 13.45 The outlay for Central and Centrally sponsored schemes in the Social Welfare sector is Rs. 799.97 crores vide details in Annexure 13.1. The Plan outlay for the States and Union Territories is Rs. 191.87 crores and Rs. 20.52 crores respectively, vide details in Annexure 13.2.
NUTRITION 13.46 The problem of under-nutrition and malnutrition widely afflict certain sections of the population. Protein Energy Malnutrition (PEM) long has been identified as the major nutritional problem in India. Various studies on dietary intakes reveal that the nutritional gap in children is primarily due to inadeqate nutritious food and not the protein quality. Pregnant women and nursing mothers and children belonging to the younger age-groups have poor reserves of Vitamin 'A' which leads to xerophthalmia. Infants with low birth weight generally have poor stores of Vitamin 'A'. Severe forms of PEM have caused two clinical forms of disorders, i.e., Kwashiorkor and Marasmus among the children belonging to the poorer families. Iron deficiency anemia among women of all age-groups, and particularly those in the reproductive age-group, is also a major problem. Besides, goiter which is widespread among the hill regions of the country due to iodine deficiency, is also being noticed in other parts of the country. Populations inhabiting certain ecological tracts are affected by fluorosis, caused by water with high fluoride content, while lathyrims is noticed among people who consume kesari dal.
13.47 The prevailing high mortality rate among infants and toddlers, and also the morbidity patterns, have
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a link with malnutrition and intestinal inflection. It has been well established that the main causes that aggravate the prevailing mortality and morbidity rates are under/malnutrition, lack of health facilities, absence of safe drinking water, environmental hygiene and bad sanitation. Besides, socioeconomic imbalances, unemployment and inadeqate purchasing power and inability to utilise health services and other infrastructure aggravate this problem.
13.48 The worst victims of this problem are children in the age-group 0-6 years, pregnant women and nursing mothers, and particularly those belonging to these population groups in drought- prone areas and remote tribal areas and among landless agricultural labourers, rural artisans and certain strata living in urban slums. Dietary surveys by the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau reveal that nearly 50 per cent of the households surveyed in different States of the country consume food which is quite inadequate to meet their requirements of either calories or proteins, or even both. An assessment of malnutrition among children below 6 years of age reveals that less than 15 per cent of them could be considered as having a normal status of nutrition; the rest suffer from varying degrees of undernutrition.