SOCIAL WELFARE
Social welfare programmes aim at enabling the deprived sections of the population to overcome their social, economic or physical handicaps and improve their quality of life. They supplement the developmental programmes in general in dealing with We problems Of poverty and unemployment and are meant in Particular, to assist the most disadvantaged groups below the poverty line, especially children from poor families, women, the handicapped and the infirm.
REVIEW 28.2 Under 'Social Welfare sector, preventive, developmental and rehabilitative services are provided to the socially and physically handicapped as well as to the vulnerable and weaker sections of the society. These services have developed gradually and the inputs increased steadily during the successive plan periods. In the First Five Year Plan, a provision of Rs. 4.00 crores was made and the amount was placed at the disposal of the Central Social Welfare Board, setup in 1953 for encouraging voluntary organisations, especially in the field of women and child welfare.It gave grants-in-aid and technical assistance to the voluntary organisations. It also started Welfare Extension Projects' for Providing welfare services to women and children in rural areas.
28.3 The Second Plan with an approved outlay of Rs. 19 crores witnessed the participation of Central and State Governments in addition to the activities of the Central Social Welfare Board. The scope of social welfare was widened so as to include and promote additional activities for welfare of women and children like welfare extension projects in urban and border areas, condensed courses of education for adult women and socioeconomic programmes. For tackling the problem of juvenile, delinquency, beggary and vagrancy and immoral traffic in girls and women, the Central Government sponsored various 'social Defence ' schemes and the State Governments were encouraged to implement them with necessary financial support. Special programmes were introduced for the education, training and rehabilitation of the physically handicapped.
28.4 In the Third Plan, the State Governments and the voluntary organisations were associated closely in drawing up the Plan with an outlay of Rs. 31 crores. While providing services, effort was directed in particular towards sections of the community which needed special care and protection. The object was to replace individual haphazard relief and charity by organised and sustained activity for education, welfare and rehabilitation with the general support of the community, The resources provided were utilised both for expanding the, existing services and for assisting voluntary organisations to continue their activities. To this extent, development of new services tended to be limited.
28.5 The Fourth Plan aimed at the consolidation of the initiatives taken in the previous plans. An outlay of Rs. 41 crores. was provided for this purpose. One of the major programmes in operation was the 'Family and Child Welfare Projects' in rural areas. The grants-in-aid programme was utilised to a larger extent than in the past. The 'Social Defence' programmes which were being implemented by the States with financial support from the Central Government were completely transferred to the States for imple- mentation and the Centre continued to give guidance and advice to the States.
28.6 The effort so far was mainly directed to the provision of some basic curative or ameliorative services. The preventive and developmental aspects which are more effective and economical in the long run did not receive adequate attention. The major thrust in the Fifth Plan with an outlay of Rs. 83 crores, was on the expansion of preventive and developmental programmes. During this period, child welfare was given the highest Priority. To ensure healthy growth and development of children and reduce infant and maternal mortality rates, the scheme Integrated Child Development Services (lCDS) was launched on an experimental basis to provide a package of services consisting of supplementary nutrition, immunisation, health check-up, referral services, nutrition and health education and non-formal education to children in the age-group 0-6 and pregnant and nursing mothers in rural, urban and tribal areas.
28.7 The ICDS scheme was evaluated by the Programme Evaluation Organisation of the planning Commission. Its findings show that the ICDS projects have over come initial difficulties such as recruitment of staff, training, equipment and supplies but the success of the programme is more in respect of children in the age group of 3 to 6 years then towards
430
431
children belonging to the age group of 0 to 3 years. The periodic assessment made by the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences have pointed out that the nutrition status and the health standards of the children have remarkably improved in the Project areas. The States have pointed out that lack of proper storage facilities, weak supply of food items and incomplete identification of severely malnourished cases remain the main limitations of the programme.
28.8 Coordination at the block level among the health, social welfare and block development staff in many States is not effective. Proper methods and procedures would have to be evolved for achieving effective coordination. Integration in the provision of services at the Anganwadi level is reported to be poor and ineffective. Identification of the target groups based on objective criteria is not being undertaken systematically. Thus the most needy and vulnerable groups have not been able to benefit from this programme.
28.9 In regard to the welfare services for women, priority was given to the needs of women in need of care and protection, women from low income families and women with dependent children and working women. The scheme of condensed course of education and socioeconomic programme continued to be expanded. A programme of functional literacy aimed at endowing women with necessary knowledge and skills to perform the functions such as child care, nutrition, health care etc. was introduced in the ICDS project areas. A scheme to assist voluntary organisations in extending hostel facilities for working women was taken up. In addition to the continuing schemes for education and training of the physically handicapped, a scheme of 'Integrated Education' was evolved for placing handicapped children in ordinary schools.
28.10 The role of voluntary organisations in the implementation of various programmes was recognised.
28.11 The selected major physical achievement so far at the Centre has been 281 Family and Child Welfare Projects, later transferred to the States, launching of 200 Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) projects in the rural, tribal and urban areas. Besides, institutional and non-institutional services for nearly 40,000 children in need of care and protection, creches for about 50,000 children of working mothers, functional literacy for adult women in 200 ICDS projects were provided. About 3901 condensed courses of education benefitting around 84,000 adult women were organised. Socio-economic units numbering 2,942 for providing employment to nearly 35,000 needy women and 196 hostels have been sanctioned for working women. The Central Social Welfare Board has provided grants- in-aid to about 6,000 voluntary organisations. The Central and State Governments have been providing scholarships to the physically handicapped. In addition the letter are offering services in the shape of Creches, balwadis, child guidance centres, training-cum- production centres for women, institutional and non-institutional services for the socially and physically handicapped.
28.12 During the last three decades thus social welfare services have grown both in volume and in range and the outlays have also increased considerably from a mere Rs. 4 crores in the First Plan to Rs. 83 crores in the Fifth Plan. The administrative machinery has also expanded and there is a better awareness of the developmental concept if social welfare, its linkages with other sectors of develop- ment and its role in raising the levels of living of the most vulnerable groups. A large number of voluntary organisations are now being assisted to undertake social welfare programmes in different parts of the country. Social legislations have been reviewed and amended to make them more effective, and training, compilation of statistics and research have thrown light on the nature and the dimensions of different 'problems and deficiencies in implementation.
28.13 In spite of these achievements, certain deficiencies in programme planning and implementation need to be remedied in order that the effectiveness of social welfare schemes can be enhanced. There has been a tendency to depend on schematic patterns in the implementation of the schemes by Government or voluntary organisations leaving little room for flexibility or ability to respond to the requirements and variations in local situation. The involvement of local community in planning and programming has been inadequate and their participation has been more in the nature of minor partners. There has been lack of integration of services at the beneficiaries level.
28.14 The development of welfare services between States has varied considerably and the backward States where the need is greater have suffered both from lower financial allocations and weak ad- ministrative machinery which have been further accentuated by frequent transfers at the policy-making levels. The field machinery for supervision has been weak. Absence of professionally trained manpower both at decision-making levels and supervisor levels has affected the quality of services.
28.15 Voluntary organisations have concentrated and developed only in some States and that, too, in selected areas within States for extending certain types of welfare services. The grant-in-aid Programmes have not been able to promote and develop voluntary organisations in remote and backward areas with the result that the existing disparities have been aggravated and central funds have flowed more to areas already having strong administrative machinery and infrastructure to utilise the funds. Women's organisations specially at the local level in rural areas have not been promoted.
28.16 While development of services for children have shown an increase, those for the physically handicapped have remained extremely inadequate and little has been done to bring the handicapped in
432
the mainstream of national development through integrated programmes of education, training and placement.
28.17 The linkages of social welfare programmes with economic programmes has not materialised except in a very limited way and many economic projects have been launched, particularly in rural areas without proper consideration of the social impact or the social service needs of women and children. There is lack of coordination between the State Government and the State Social Welfare Boards in programme planning and implementation. Such coordination has assumed urgency in view of the proposed expansion. Monitoring of programme performance of even the important schemes continues to be in terms of financial achievement's rather than physical performance related to the objectives of the schemes. The welfare needs of working women, specially from low income groups in urban and rural areas, have not been properly assessed and the package of services needed to uplift them has not been ascertained.
STRATEGY 28.18 Social welfare sector is basically supplemental to the needs of the most deprived and the real benefit to them should come from the general sectors. The National Rural Employment Programme and the beneficiary-oriented Integrated Rural Development Programme would contribute substantially in this regard, besides agriculture, animal husbandry, irrigation and other economic activities.
28.19 Social planning should be an integral part of economic planning and every economic project would build into its study and cost the social problems created and their solutions. While developing infrastructural facilities under major sectors like power, transport, industries and irrigation their benefit to the weakest would be specially noted and correctives provided for where necessary.
28.20 In order not to spread the allocations too thin, areas which are most backward and prone to the handicaps or social disorders will be identified. In these areas, the most needy families will be iden- tified specially from amongst the landless agricultural labour, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and other sections. Amongst the families, the most vulnerable members, namely, children of the age- group 0-6, pregnant and nursing mothers, the physically handicapped, the aged and infirm would be identified and programmes developed to meet their needs.
28.21 Preventive and developmental services would be given preference over institutional care as the latter is very costly and can Substitute family care only in exceptional cases. Institutional services would be strengthened only selectively by encouraging voluntary agencies to the extent possible.
28.22 The child care services to the most vulnerable group 0-6, will be strengthened to provide linkage with other inputs like health and hygiene, education and water supply.
28.23 In women's programmes the emphasis would be laid on the promotion of employment and education. Institutional care for women in need of care and protection would be provided only when it is unavoidable. A chain of self-supporting activities will be developed to encourage greater employment of women, especially from low income groups in urban and rural areas with a view to developing a total package of services needed by them. Studies and development of technology to reduce drudgery of their household work would be supported.
28.24 The physically handicapped will be encouraged to integrate with the normal stream of life. Their education, training and employment would be promoted to facilitate integration. Prevention and early detection of physical handicaps will be given importance. Attention will be focussed on. the development of multidisciplinary services for treatment of the handicapped.
28.25 The Central Social Welfare Board and its counterparts in the States are entrusted with the responsibility to promote, stimulate and strengthen voluntary action in the field of social welfare. They would play a major role in promoting and strengthening of voluntary effort. The mechanism to coordinate the activities of the State Social Welfare Advisory Boards with those of the State Social Welfare Departments would be reviewed and suitable steps would be taken to make its functioning effective. Voluntary institutions will be encouraged to develop programmes in rural and other areas where they have not reached and to build up innovative and flexible programmes to suit the requirements of these areas. They would require technical guidance, financial support and in-service training to improve their managerial efficiency and standard of services. Steps would be taken for the simplification of grant-giving procedures and timely release of funds. In addition all India/major voluntary organisations working in the field of social welfare will be given grants-in-aid.
28.26 For effective implementation of social welfare programmes, local communities would be fully involved and stimulated for sharing greater responsibility in organisation and supervision. Their participation will also be essential for identifying the beneficiaries. A. system of participative decision making by all beneficiaries at the delivery Point may be considered.
28.27 Simple monitoring systems at the State and project levels would be developed for effective, follow-up of major programmes. Provision for research and evaluation of the programmes will be inbuilt into the programme outlays.
28.28 The administrative machinery needs to be strengthened in view of the considerable expansion of
433
services. Induction of professionally trained technical manpower at decision-making and supervisory levels would be considered. Exchange of personnel between extension organisations and research and teaching institutions will be encouraged to stimulate analysis and fresh thinking on various schemes. Training at various levels will be strengthened to equip the workers with the basic skills required for programme management.
PROGRAMMES
Child Welfare 28.29 Child welfare will be accorded high priority within the overall frame of social welfare. The scheme 'Integrated Child Development Services' would be the major scheme and would be expanded so as to cover additional 400 blocks raising the total to 600 blocks by the end of Plan Period. Measures will be, taken to improve the working of the angan wadis by strengthening training, improving supervision and Providing linkage with health, nutrition and other services and socioeconomic programmes for women. Emphasis will be laid on the development of monitoring system at the State and, project levels. Special efforts should be made to evolve the local communities and other agencies in all aspects of programme improvement. The existing programmes of creche/day-care centres and balwadis would be integrated for providing a package of services and linked with areas of economic activity for women under various sectors of employment. The programmes Of balwadis and welfare extension projects would be merged with ICDS projects wherever they coincide.The programme of service of children in need of care and protection will be suitably modified to develop cheaper models with better standards of services. The scheme will be linked with training institutions and socio-economic programmes do that the children could be rehabilitated in the society.
Women Welfare 28.30 The scheme of condensed course and vocational training has proved its utility in offering opportunities to the young girls. to continue their education. it would be expanded further to prepare girl students for lateral entry to classes V and VIII also. Voluntary Organisations would be given incentive,to organise these courses among the most backward tribal and rural areas in order to enable the girls to take up locally available opportunities under various developmental schemes. Effort would be made to keep proper liaison with the training institutions for Anganwadi workers, ANMs etc. so that women completing the condensed courses could readily be absorbed into various occupations. The scope of vocational training would be enlarged. to cover a large number of trades so that the trainees would be able to find ready employment. Areas having low female literacy rates would be identified and selected for organising condensed courses and vocational training.
28.31 The existing socioeconomic programmes would be reoriented so as to make the scheme economically viable and self-sustaining. Emphasis will be placed on the provision of financial assistance in the shape of seed money only rather than giving one time grants as in the past. The projects would be prepared keeping in view the economic viability and involvement of financial institutions so that the projects could be replicated considerably and larger number of women could be helped to secure employment.