The Indian Government, headed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, approved the Tenth Five Year Plan in December 2002. The period of the Tenth Plan started from 1 April 2002 to 31 March 2007. For the first time, specific monitorable targets for the key indicators have been set in the Tenth Five Year Plan. The motto of the 10th Plan was ‘faster growth’. It aimed to double the per capita income in the country within the next ten years. The Tenth Five-Year Plan is being presented in three volumes.
The first volume, titled “Dimensions and Strategies“, has a broader perspective and discusses objectives & strategies of development, macroeconomic dimensions, external sector dimensions, employment perspective, disaster management, governance and implementation methodologies.
The second volume, titled “Sectoral Policies and Programmes“, gives details of the policies and programmes necessary to attain the Plan objectives. The individual sectoral chapters review the existing policies and programmes, identify the shortcomings, and propose news policy and programmatic initiatives to overcome the weaknesses and accelerate the pace of progress.
The third volume, titled “State Plans – Trends, Concerns and Strategies“, was included in the 10th Plan. Therefore, for the first time, a separate volume on State Plans is being introduced as a part of the Tenth Plan document. This volume included the chapters: Development trends, Plan investments and financing, Special Area Programmes, Planning & implementation issues, and Concerns & strategies.
Objectives of the Tenth Five Year Plan
The main objectives of the 10th Five-Year Plan were as follow:
- To double the Per Capita Income of India within the next ten years.
- To attain 8% GDP growth per year.
- To reduce the poverty rate by 5% by 2007.
- To provide gainful and high-quality employment opportunities.
- To offer universal access to primary education by 2007.
- To increase the literacy rate to 72% within the plan period and 80% by 2012.
- Reduction in gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by at least 50% by 2007.
- Reduction in infant mortality rate to 45 (per 1000 births) by 2007 and 28 by 2012.
- Reduction in decade rate of population between 2001 and 2011 to 16.2%.
- To increase the forest and tree cover of the country to 25% by 2007 and 33% by 2012.
- To clean all the major polluted rivers by 2007.
- To provide sustained access to potable drinking water to all villages by 2012.