"Planned"

India got independence on the 15th August, 1947. Since then, there have been attempts made by the government for the country to develop in all spheres – social, economic and cultural. Most of these attempts have been successful. One of the highlights and the most important creation by our Central Government was the formulation of the Planning Commission on March 1950.

Ever since its inception, the Commission has been meticulously planning out the National Five Year plans – these are the government documents which aim at triggering off development in every sector possible. Every plan focuses on one sector in particular and the rest in general. Each five year plan has a set of aims and objectives to be followed, a rationale and the means through which development is going to be achieved. As of now the Government is following the 11th five year plan – April 2008 to March 2013.

However, what led to the government coming up with the idea of have Five Year Plans was the Gandhian Meta Model. Participatory communication, according to this model was the key to development. It aimed at providing people with basic minimum needs and a better quality of life through structural changes in the society. This thus paved way for the government to come up with the concept of the National Five Year Plan.

The 1st Five Year Plan was planned from 1951 to 1956. This Plan aimed at creating awareness among the people they were working for. Development according to me is supposed to happen from all angles; in the sense that there should be support from all sides. The Government alone cannot do wonders if there is no support from the side of the public; the people that they are actually working for. People need to understand and absorb the need for development. This was the main aim of the first five year plan. It aimed at making people aware as to what development was all about and why the country needed to develop, especially after the British left us in a bad shape. This need was to be felt and the Government decided this could happen by passing it on to the people by informing, educating and motivating them. The means through with the Government was going to achieve this was with the help of public participation. Obviously, one can see the influence of the Gandhian Meta Model is evident here.

The objectives were set based on the idea to develop each one of these sectors accordingly. The general objective however was to have a kick start. As mentioned earlier the country was in a bad shape after the invasion of the Britishers. Therefore it was necessary for the country to start from scratch. Therefore instead of focusing on a particular sector the Government cleverly sketched out a plan that targeted at overall development and then later move on to particular sectoral development. Although the Government did aim at developing and enhancing communication channels as this was the means through which they decided to target the key point here – Development. The first five year plan's total outlay was estimated to been worth Rs. 2,069 crores. This amount was allocated to various areas. They are:

• Community and agriculture development

• Energy and irrigation

• Communications and transport

• Industry

• Land rehabilitation

• Social services

The 11th Five Year Plan on the other hand started off under favorable circumstances. The economy was growing at 7.7% per annum in the Tenth plan period. However the main problem was that even after ten meticulously planned Plans, people in pockets all over the country did not have the basic requirements like nutrition, housing, water supply and sewerage. By this time the Government realized that each sector had to be developed individually. It was high time one focused on each simultaneously rather than blindly aiming at overall development, which according to me is a Utopian ideology.

There are different objectives set for this plan. The growth objective is to achieve an average growth rate of 9%per annum for the Plan period. There are 26 other monitorable targets related to other sectors like:

• Income and poverty

• Education

• Health

• Women and children

• Infrastructure

• Environment

Personally, I feel the main aim of this plan is the upliftment of the marginalized group, in other words the disadvantaged groups – STs, SCs and the minorities.

The main differences between the two plans, according to me, are as follows:

• The change in the way as to how the plans have been made

• The change in the way in which the Plans have been executed over the years

• The shift in the focus of development

• The shift in the focus in the type of development the Government wants to achieve

• The shift from giving out subsidies to the farmers in the 1st Five Year Plan to almost cutting them down in the 11th Five Year Plan

On a concluding note, one can notice that the concept of the National Five Year Plan is not totally a failure. It has in fact given the Government a third eye, meaning it has given the Government the idea of perspective and the fact that it has to focus on one thing at a time for the country to develop step by step.