Every Five-Year Plan is conceived on the bedrock of high expectations and on the conviction of avoding past mistakes and implementing new ideas in order to build a more prosperous India. The Plan has taken on a fresh look in the light of the different innovations introduced during the new regime, especially in the areas of information technology, bio technology, infrastructure, tourism, etc.
The Plan was approved on October 5, 2002 at a full meeting of the Planning Commission.
Our overall performance has been improving from Plan to Plan. For instance GDP growth in the post-liberalisation period has improved from an average of about 5.7% in the 1980 to an average of about 6.5% in the Eighth and Ninth Plan periods, making India one of the ten fastest growing economies. The percentage of population below poverty line has, also, declined, even though it may not to be to the extent the planners had planned. Population growth has decelerated below 2% for the first time in four decades. Literacy has increased from 52% in 1991 to 65% in 2001. Sectors such as software services, entertainment and IT-enabled services have emerged as new sources of strength creating confidence about India’s potential to be competitive in the world economy.
The Tenth Plan is all geared to take up the challenges left over by the previous Plans. For a vast country like India with a rising population, constraints on utilisation of resources and frequent natural calamities, development work, however well planned, may not be that smooth sailing. A prolonged drought, unprecedented floods and a warlike situation on the border, a hike in international oil prices, global recession, the economic fallout of September 11—all could throw our plan targets out of order. Still India has been able to stand its ground. And a strong nation can ill-afford to run away from the host of its burning problems. The problems are too many and the people hope that the present Plan would try to alleviate them to the maximum extent possible. For instance, the incidence of unemployment on Current Daily Status is relatively high at about 7%. More than half of the children of 1-5 years age in rural areas are undernourished while the infant mortality rate has stagnated at 72 per 1000 for the last several years. As many as 60 percent of rural households and about 20 percent of urban households do not have a power connection. Only 60 percent of urban households have taps within their homes, and far fewer have toilets inside the house. Deterioration in urban environment, proliferation of slums and a steady rise in air and water pollution in the cities have impaired the quality of life in urban India. Things are no better in the vast countryside. There is both land and forest degradation. Overexploitation of groundwater threatens not only the sustainability of farming but sources of supply of potable water as well.
Against this background, the Tenth Plan provides an opportunity to build upon the gains of the past and address the weaknesses that have emerged. The era of liberalisation has made the country take a hard look at the role of the Government. Gone are the days when the Government tended to take on too many responsibilities, imposing severe strains on its limited financial and administrative capabilities and also stifling individual initiative. Over the years the private sector has come into its own, growing strong, dynamic and innovative. Public sector organisations have lost their punch and it is just a matter of time before the private sector plays a predominant role in the industrial scene of the country. This does not mean that the government has no role to play; it does have a role, but a totally different one. In social sector and infrastructrue development, government has to come in, though in a modified way. Here too, in sectors like telecommunications, power, ports, etc, the private sector can play a much larger role provided an appropriate policy framework is in place. Here the role of the government needs to change to facilitate such investment as much as possible while still remaining a public service provider for quite some time. In all these areas, the role of government in creating and maintaining a modern regulatory system for ensuring a fair deal for consumers, transparency and accountability, and a level playing field is also extremely important.
Traditionlly, the level of per capita income has been regarded as a summary indicator of the economic well-being of the country and growth targets have therefore focused on growth in per capita income or per capita GDP. The Prime Minister has direced the Planning Commission to examine the fesibility of doubling per capita income in the next ten years. With population expected to grow at about 1.6% per annum, this target requires the rate of growth of GDP to be around 8.7% over the Tenth and Eleventh Plan periods.
It has been found that a mere rise in GDP does not take us anywhere. The ultimate aim is the quality of human life and provision of minimum needs. The inevitable question arises: Are the people getting enough food and do they have easy access to basic social services like expansion of economic and social opportunities for all individuals and groups, reductions in disparties, and greater participation in decision-making. In addition to the 8% growth target.
Main Objectives
1. Reduction of poverty ratio by 5 percentage points by 2007 and by 15 percentage points by 2012.
2. Providing gainful high quality employment to the addition to the labour force over the Tenth Plan period.
3. All children to the enrolled in schools by 2003.
4. All children to complete 5 years of schooling by 2007.
5. Reduction in gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by at least 50% by 2007.
6. Reduction in decadal rate of population growth between 2001 and 2011 to 16.2%.
7. Increase in Literacy Rate to 75% within the Plan period.
8. Reduction of infant mortality rate (IMR) to 45 per 1000 live births by 2007 and to 28 by 2010.
9. Reduction of Maternal mortality ratio (MMR) to 2 per 1000 live births by 2007 and to 1 by 2012.
10. Increase in forest and free cover to 25% by 2007 and 33% by 2012.
11. All villages to have sustained access to potable drinking water within the Plan period.
12. Cleaning of major polluted rivers by 2007 and other notified streches by 2012.
The Plans have traditionally focused on setting national targets, but it has been found that there is a variation in the performance of different States. The Tenth Plan focuses on ways and means of correcting the regional imbalance.
The Plan lays great emphasis on agriculture since growth in this sector is likely to lead to the widest dissemination of benefits, especially to the rural poor including agricultural labour. Also, since the majority of women workers are engaged in agriculture, investments in this sector have enormous implications for gender equality. Incidentally, the first generation of reforms concentrated on reforms in the industrial sector were neglected. And this trend would change in the Tenth Plan.
The growth strategy of the Tenth Plan will seek to ensure the rapid growth of those sectors which are most likely to create high quality employment opportunities. Particular attention will be paid to the policy environment influencing a wide range of economic activities which have a large employment, potential. These include such sectors as construction, real estate and housing, transport, SSI, modern retailing entertainment, IT-enabled services and a range of other new services, which need to be promoted through supportive services.
The Plan admits that growth as such may bypass certain vulnerable groups like women who are at present covered by such programmes may be modified where necessary. In pursuance of the Ninth Plan objective of empowering women as agents of socio-economic change and development, the National Policy on Empowerment of Women was adopted in April 2001. On the basis, a National Plan of Action (NPA) is being formulated to ensure the requisite access of women to information, resources and services. The Tenth Plan will focus on the effective implementation of NPA.
The Plan has also focused on the welfare and development of other vulnerable sections of society like the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward classes.
The ultimate idea of planning is to bring all sections of society to the mainstream of socio-economic development and this is exactly what the Tenth Plan seeks to secure.
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