Family and Child Welfare

Family and Child Welfare 3 (3+0)

Lesson 23 : Welfare programmes for Women

Welfare Programmes

The programmes to promote women's welfare and development have been evolved separately for rural and urban areas. There are other certain general programmes meant for specific groups of women.

1. Programmes in Rural Areas
   These programmes aim to train and mobilize women in villages for their development and are modelled on Gandhian ideas for women's progress to which the Kasturba Memorial Trust gave a concrete shape. Education, health services, and socio-economic programmes (in the form of khadi and village industries) to relieve economic distress formed the three prongs of this composite programme. In 1954, when the Central Social Welfare Board decided to launch the Welfare Extension Projects (WEP), this three-fold approach was adopted as the basic framework and their activities included Balwadis, maternity services and general medical aid, social education and craft training for women.
   In the First Plan, Maternity and Child Welfare Services were taken up by the Ministry of Health as part of the overall development programme in health. At the same time, the Community Projects Administration also undertook these services. Other Ministries such as Railways, Defence and Labour also promoted maternity and child welfare programmes. It was realized from the beginning that the objectives of these programmes could not be achieved without the active participation of the members and leaders of the local community, it was decided to constitute committees of local women to guide or run these programmes Mahila Mandals were organized in villages and blocks for promoting women's programmes. Various village functionaries needed for these development schemes were trained by Government agencies and non-governmental organizations such as the Kasturba Memorial Trust, Visva Bharati, and Jamia Milia with assistance from the CSWB.


2. Programmes in Urban Areas
   Apart from some Welfare Extension Projects, most programmes in urban areas have been left to voluntary organizations receiving grants from the CSWB. The best known is the scheme for Working Women's Hostels.


3. Other Programmes
   These include condensed courses of education for adult women and socio-economic programmes (e.g. training-cum­-production centres in simple crafts), which were initially started for the rehabilitation of refugee women and were later on taken up by the CSWB to provide an extra source of income to needy women. The CSWB also provides financial assistance to voluntary welfare institutions and cooperative societies for small production units. A number of Ministries such as Railways, Labour, Agriculture and Community Development have schemes for providing craft training for women. Most of the welfare programmes attempt to improve earning power. The nutrition programmes which were emphasized in the plans as a major and lower income groups, are being operated by the Department of Social Welfare and CSWB, the Ministry of Health and Family planning, the Department of Community Development of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Education. The Fourth Plan Special Nutrition Programme for pre-school children and expectant and nursing mothers has been redesignated as the Integrated Child Development Programme (ICDP) in the Fifth Plan and is proposed to be implemented by co-ordination between the Ministry of Health, State Health Departments, Community Development Department, and the Department of Social Welfare. The entire expenditure for the ICDP during the Fifth Plan will be met by the Centre.