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“Plan must make women partners in development”

NEW DELHI: Seeking to move beyond the “women-in-distress” approach, women’s groups have demanded concrete plans and policies in XI Five-Year Plan to address the issues of education, employment and health with the focus on reducing the maternal mortality rate.

With the economy growing at nine per cent, 70 million new jobs to be created, the per capita income set to double in 10 years and the Plan size being twice that of X Plan, a “concrete policy commitment” to make women be partners in development is imperative, Veena Nayyar of the Women’s Political Watch told journalists here on Monday.

Pointing out that the Plan approach set only four goals of improving sex ratio, reducing maternal mortality rate, lowering the school dropout rate and ensuring that 33 per cent of women become beneficiaries of all government schemes, Ms. Nayyar wondered whether these were comprehensive enough to achieve the key Plan goal “of developing women’s full potential and sharing the benefits of economic growth and prosperity.”

“It is not only higher allocation but also improved infrastructure, policy support, strategy and programmes that need to be put in place to ensure women’s full development and partnership,” Ms. Nayyar said.

Mohini Giri of the Guild of Services said women wanted to be not only beneficiaries but also equal partners in development. The Plan must articulate a shift beyond the victim-centric approach. While aspects of economic empowerment were intentioned, the policy road map to achieve it was missing. It also lacked policy strategies, programmes or targets commensurate with the goals of XI Plan, the women’s groups said.

They have impressed on the National Development Council – meeting here on Wednesday — to use its power to bring about Planchanges for centrality to addressing the issues of education, skills and employability crises of women and girls.

The Plan should reflect the fact that women today were an employment and entrepreneurial workforce, development force and fast consolidating vote force. “We believe that the strong leadership provided by the NDC would foster a real inclusion of women as participants and beneficiaries of development of this 2007-2012 Plan,” Ms. Nayyar said.

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“Plan must make women partners in development”

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