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Chapter 20:
SOCIAL WELFARE

in the sphere of social welfare services, especially for the handicapped and the destitute, Government can only attempt limited tasks to try and ensure optimal benefits from both State and voluntary effort. Such tasks will include various type of assistance- -monetary, technical and administrative—to voluntary organisations. Government can undertake demostration of pilot projects. They can legislate where necessary, regulate and administer welfare organisations and coordinate the relevant activities of education, health and social welfare. In order that these activities, whether financed by the Central Government or State Governments, do not suffer a setback, it is necessary that the established level of maintenance expenditure on welfare services is treated as committed expenditure and incorporated in the non-plan part of the appropriate budget.

20.2. The expenditure on social welfare programmes in the first three plans and the outlay in the Fourth Plan are :

Table 1 Expenditure and Outlay on Social Welfare Programmes
(Rs. crores)

20.3. The past eight years have been important for the development of welfare services since they signified participation by the State not only in the sphere of statutory enactment but also in the organisation of basic services for education and rehabilitation of the handicapped and the extension of welfare services for women and children in. rural areas. The Central Social Welfare Board gave grants-in-aid of about Rs. 4 69 crores to voluntary organisations in '-he Third Plan and about Rs, 2.2 crores in the three years following. Among the more important schemes supported by the Central Social Welfare .Board are condensed courses of education for women of 18—30 years to enable them to appear in middle and higher secondary examinations and the scheme of holiday camps for children from low income groups. In the Third Plan, 625 condensed courses oi education benefiting 4,384 women were conducted by voluntary organisations and 790 holiday camps were run. During 1966—69, about 316 condensed courses of education and 547 holiday camps were run. One hundred and twelve family and child welfare projects have been started in the rural areas. A centre for the adult deal was set up in Hyderabad in 1962 to give training facilities in engineering and non-engineering occupations. A model school for mentally retarded children was established in Delhi in 1964. In the Third Plan 1,876 scholarships were given to the physically handicapped students for both academic and vocational or technical courses and Rs. 27 lakhs spent. During the last eight years about Rs. 38 lakhs were given as grant-in-aid to voluntary organisations for the handicapped for purchase of equipment and improvement in standards of service. Nine special employment exchanges for the physically handicapped were set up. The total placement of the handicapped up to 1967 since the inception of the first employment exchanges in Bombay in 1959 is 4,290. The scheme of pre-vocational training centres was started in the form of a combined three year-course in general education and vocational training for boys of 11 to 14 years who left school. There are now 64 such centres including five regional centres. For the promotion of voluntary efforts, Rs. 34 lakhs were given during the Third Plan as grant-in-aid to national voluntary organisations for implementing programmes of training of pesonnel, maintenance of office and the organisation of seminars and workshops. The Central Bureau of Correctional Services was set up in 1961 for collection and compilation of national statistics and preparation of guide books and model schemes. Social defence programmes under the Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, Probation of Offenders' Act and Children Acts were organised. The Central Institute of Research and Training in Public Co-relating to popular participation.

20.4. A review of the development of welfare services during the last eight years shows certain weaknesses. In the previous Plans, inadequate attention was paid to the needs of destitute children. Absence of counselling or advisory services, lack of statistical data, deficiencies in management and supervision at the field level, and absence of proper coordination between the Central Social Welfare Board and State Departments of Social Welfare have been the other limitations. In the Third Plan only Rs. 19 crores were spent as against the Plan outlay of Rs. 31 crores. The utilisation has, however, improved and during 1966—69 four-fifths of the Plan outlay was spent.

20.5. The outlays are :

Table 2 Fourth Plan Outlay

20.6. A major programme which wiil be continued in the Central sector is that of the family aad child welfare projects in rural areas. Each project has one main centre and five sub-centres. The main activities are provision of integrated services to children in the village specially to pre-school children, and provision ol basic training to women in homecrati, mother craft, health education, nutrition and child care. The projects are managed by a functional committee or the Panchayat Samili. In the implementation of the programmes, co-ordination with other services such as applied nutrition and primary health services is envisaged. In the first phase the existing wellare extension projects begun in coordination wnh community development blocks are being conveited into family and child welt are projects. It is proposed to establish 181 more tamily and child welfare projects during the next five years on approval by the concerned Stale Governments so that the liability for these can devolve smoothly on the State at the end of the five-year period. An assessment of the existing projects is being made in order to streamline the operation and remedy detects before embarking on the conversion of the additional coordinated welfare extension projects. It would be desirable to make this scheme flexible so that implementation is made to suit local conditions.

20.7. Nutritional deficiency in pre-school cliildren has been recognised as a problem requiring urgent action by both Government and the community. An outly of Rs. 6 crores has been made for the feeding of pre-school children. The organisational machinery of family and child welfare projects, women's welfare orgnisation? and balwadis will be utilised for the purpose. In addition, contribution from the commuuity in cash and kind will be raised to sustain the piogramme. The larger coordinated endeavour of which this will be a part is set out in Chapter 10.

20.8. The sciieme of pre-vocational training centres ;een evaluated by a study team. Its recommendations for diversification of training, starting of part-time courses, starting of new centres for girls and extension of the period of the .course are under consideration. Each centre after a satisfactory operation of a five-year period will become the responsibility of the State Government. This will allow new centres to be started by the Central Government with the cooperation of States in which the centres are situated.

20.9. Among children those who are destitute should receive higher priority. There are now a few programmes in operation in the States for destitute children including the skeleton services so far organised under the Children Acts. In the States where the Children Act does not exist, such legislation is recommended. Where such legislation exists more districts may be brought under the coverage of the Act. Although the Children Acts in most of the States and Union Territories cover both neglected and delinquent children, in practice the organisation of services for negiacted children has not received much attention. This shortcoming has to be remedied. The Central Social Welfare Board has given assistance to some voluntary organisations engaged in the welfare of destitute children under its general grant-in-aid programmes. In the Third Plan Rs. 36.9 lakhs was given as grant-in-aid to 14 foundling homes and 270 orphanages. The number of institutions in existence now is, however, limited and the standard of services rather uneven. It is proposed to place greater emphasis on the provision of services for destitute children either directly by Government or through voluntary effort. The grant-in-aid programme of the Central Social Welfare Board is proposed to be utilised to a larger extent than has been possible in the past for giving assistance to voluntary organisations engaged in the welfare of destitute children aad for experimenting with non-institutional services like foster-care and adoption. Rs. 2 croies is proposed to be allocated specifically for institutional and non-institutional services for welfare of destitute children.

20.10. The Central Social Welfare Board will continue to assist voluntary organisations which implement programmes of women and child welfare such as condensed courses of education for adult women, urban welfare extension projects, holiday camps for children of low income groups, schools for the physically handicapped, homes for the aged and the infirm and balwadis. It is proposed to allocate Rs. 1 crore specifically for assisting voluntary oiganisations for the welfare programmes for destitute women. The Central Social Welfare Board has now been registered as a Company under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956. Effective coordination of the activities of the State departments of Social Welfare and State Social Welfare Advisory Boards will make it possible to organise field counselling services for the benefit of voluntary organisations, inject greater managerial and organisational talent and prepare a directory or list of recognised voluntary organisations in each State indicating their objectives, functions and the standards of their services. The system of grant-in-aid should be so operated as to discourage excessive dependence on Government. For some services at least, the grant-in-aid should taper off after a certain period so that with the limited resources at the disposal of Government, new areas or programmes could be taken up.

20.11. It is proposed to expand and improve the services in the National Centre for the Blind at Dehra Dun which already has a model school, a training centre, a workshop for the manufacture of Braille appliances for education, a central Braille press, and a national library for the blind. It is also proposed to start a school for parsially sighted children. The training centre for the adult deaf which offers facilities to boys of 16—25 years of age in engineering and non-engineering occupations will be expanded and a school for the partially deaf started. The model school for mentally retarded children in Delhi for boys and girls between 6 to 15 years in age with I. Q. ranging from 5Q to 75 will be expanded and workshop facilities provided. It is proposed to make a beginning with a national centre for the physically handicapped to serve as a demonstration project for the development of services for the or-thopadically handicapped in different part of the country and to provide the necessary training facilities. As a first step it is proposed to start a school for the cerebral palised children and a vocational training centre for the severely crippled.

20.12. Scholarships for the physically handicapped are already provided on the bais of means-cww merit test. These will be continued. It is proposed to initiate some pilot schemes for the integrated education of the blind, the partially blind and the partially deaf. Training facilities for the teachers of the handicapped will be expanded and improved. Grant-in-aid will continue to be given to voluntary organisations for purchase of equipment and improvement of standards of services. Institutions in the State for the education and training of the physically handicapped will be expanded and the services improved. To facilitate the employment of the handicapped, the special employment exchanges should make efforts to convince the employers that in many occupations the physically handicapped are as efficient and productive as normal workers and convey to the training institutions requirements of employers so that training can be progressively improved.

20.13. Programmes for social defence include services organised under the legislation in force indifferent States as well as other preventive and rehabilitation measures. In the Fourth Plan it is proposed to organise and expand programes for the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency, probation, supperession of immoral traffic in women and girls, social and moral hygiene and eradication of beggary.

20.14. Absence of statistics and lack of information about the performance of different schemes comes in the way of planning and implementation of welfare programmes. It would be necessary for the Departments of Social Welfare at the Centre and in the States to consider in detail how this weakness can be remedied. Research and survey of major social problems should be sponsored by organisations like the Social Science Research Council and the social welfare programmes evaluated through the existing machinery in the Centre and the States. The machinery for collection of satisfies and for research needs to be improved and statistical cells established in the Central and State departments of Social Welfare and the Central and State Social Welfare Advisory Boards. It would be desirable to organise training and orientation courses for officers at various levels in collaboration with the existing school of social work and draw them more closely into the programmes of development. A comprehensive review of existing social legislation is necessary to assess to what extent the law^have functioned as instruments of directed social change and to identify the problems of their implementation. A detailed analysis of the level of development of welfare services, whether by Government or by voluntary organisations, should be prepared in each State at regular intervals and the gaps identified. The supervision of programmes at the field level should be effective in order to raise the standards of service.

20.15. Public opinion in favour of prohibition can be created through publicity and propaganda. It is, therefore, proposed to assist voluntary organisations in this regard.

20.16. Among the large numbers that migrated to India after partition there were many families of destitute and unattached women and children as well as old and infirm persons. Since 1963, permanent liability homes and infirmaries are being maintained for their benefit by the Department of Social Welfare. From these homes those families in which children have attained the age of 18 years or women have received some vocational training are considered rebabilitable. They are given assistance to establish themselves in life. The scheme is proposed to be continued.