Family and Child Welfare

Family and Child Welfare 3 (3+0)

Lesson 22 : Programmes for Women

Women's Welfare and Development

Development in its wider perspective covers all aspects of community life. The accepted goals of national development such as maximum production, full employment, and attainment of economic equality and social justice apply equally to men and women. Their realization in an inegalitarian society is not, however, possible, unless special efforts are made to assist the underprivileged groups. Our Constitution therefore stresses the urgent need for promoting the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people; and as women are handicapped by social customs and traditions, they need special attention to help them to play their full and proper role in education, health and welfare.

Among the programmes specially designed in these areas, the priorities have been the same till the end of the Fourth Plan. There has been a continued emphasis on women's education in all the plans. The other programmes for women mainly concentrated on maternal and child welfare services, health, nutrition, and family planning. As regards social welfare, the voluntary sector operated the bulk of the programmes, the efforts of the government being confined to provide institutional services. The Second Plan emphasized the need for special attention to the problems of women workers who suffered from certain handicaps, e.g. unequal pay, lack of adequate training facilities to enable them to compete for higher jobs, and lack of opportunities for part-time employment; and draft Fifth Plan gives priority to the training of needy women from low-income families, a programme of functional literacy for the age-group 15-45 (which includes child care, nutrition, health care, and home economics), placement and follow-up of successful candidates under the present scheme of condensed courses of education, and socio-economic programmes. Under health programmes, the primary objective is to provide minimum public health facilities and integrated family planning and maternal and child care programmes.

The Planning Commission has defined three major areas for women's development:

1. Programmes under statutory obligations such as the Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act, 1956, or the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.
2. Development programmes which provide essential services and opportunities such as education, health, maternity and child welfare, family planning, nutrition, and training.
3. Programmes for special groups of women such as assistance to widows, aged and destitute women, hostels for working women in urban areas, scholar­ships for girls of Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and free residential schooling in Ashram Schools.

A central official agency was created in 1953 to promote welfare and development services for women, and children, and other under-privileged groups. The Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) provides assistance to voluntary agencies, improves and develops welfare pro­grammes, and sponsors them in areas where they do not exist. At the State level, State Social Welfare (Advisory) Boards were created with the same objectives.

There is a three-tier structure for planning and adminis­tering women's welfare and development programmes with agencies at the Central, State, and local level. However, the major responsibility for implementing these programmes lies on various departments and other agencies of Government. At the Centre, the main agencies for planning and implementation are the Planning Commission, Ministry of Education and Social Welfare with its two specialized agencies-Central Social Welfare Board and National Council of Women's Education, Ministry of Health and Family Planning, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Ministry of Labour and Employment. At the State level, there is no uniform pattern and the programmes for women are administered by a large number of departments.