Five Year Plans and Women Development in India

After independence, India has adopted Five Year Plans since 1951 for achieving economic development. So far as more than six decades of planning have passed. During this period, India has completed twelve Five-Year Plans. The main objective of the present study is to analyze the initiatives taken by the government for the development of the women in different plans period. So many programmes, policies and projects have been designed to raise the status of women in development process. Since, in our country, nearly half of the population is women, so women development is considered as a part of national development by Indian government. In India, from First Five-Year Plan to Fifth Five-Year Plan, Indian planners were concerned with helping women to fulfill their domestic roles in a more efficient way. From second plan onwards to the sixth plan women‟s welfare became a sub-heading under social welfare. In India, a large number of schemes will start for empowering women‟s in terms of social and economic condition.