Handbook of Policy and Related Documents on Women in India

Abstract

From Preface: As we are poised to enter the decade of the 90s with Indian women numbering approximately 331 million, a time comes to take stock of governmental and non-governmental efforts for women in the country. The challenges of development and change in women’s status have to be met in the coming years, disaggregated and planned for. In this mammoth effort one major component is the policy and planning perspective for women in India. Since 1970 at the national level, and in the centralised planning process at the centre the Sixth and the Seventh Plan documents for instance have been clearly developmental and progressive, providing for new programmes and approaches to improve the status of women. Similarly, other reports such as the Report of the Working Group on Employment for Women, 1978 have made forward looking recommendations. The second half of the eighties witnessed an unprecedented spurt in policy perspectives on women. Among these are two critical documents i.e. the National Perspective Plan for Women 1988-2000, which is a comprehensive all round projection for women’s development in India and the report of the National Commission on Self Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector that has also made far-reaching recommendations in terms of the unorganized sector particularly, issues, constraints and strategies for women in this sector.