Indian planning due to its certain inherent weaknesses has miserably failed towards evolving a society based on equity and social justice and free from tyranny and exploitation.

It is really shocking that despite five decades of planned development we have not been able to solve the problem of poverty, unemployment, exploitation, tyranny and injustice. More than one-third of the country’s population is living under abject poverty and is finding difficult to meet its basic needs. The planning has also not been able to bridge the gap between economic, social and spatial inequalities. Following arguments may be put forth to highlight the failures of planning.

1. Failure to provide a national minimum level of living. About 38 per cent of the country’s population is still living below poverty line.

2. Provision of employment to all able-bodied persons is still a distant dream. Instead of reduction the number of unemployed youths is increasing every year. With growing mecha­nization and computerization the number of jobs is declining.

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3. Reduction of inequalities of income and wealth has not been achieved. So much so that the gains of development have not been equita­bly distributed among all sections of popula­tion. The condition of the bottom 20 percent has deteriorated and for another 20 per cent it is stagnant.

4. Fiscal measures to correct inequalities and unaccounted money have not yielded de­sired results. The black money has generated parallel economy. The fruits of economic progress instead of reaching the masses are being grabbed by black marketers, dishon­est traders, business men, industrialists and politicians.

5. Redistribution of land and quick transition to progressive agriculture have not yet been achieved. The pace of progress of land re­forms is very slow and the restoration of tiller’s right over the land is a distant dream.

The plan has also failed to achieve the objec­tive of balanced regional development. The devel­opment gains have been spectacular for developed states like Punjab and Haryana (in case of agricul­ture) but low for backward states like Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.