The important objectives of the Tenth Five Year Plan

The Tenth Five Year Plan has kept on ‘ambitious’ objective of achieving 8 per cent per annum growth over the plan period. The plan itself admits that achieving this objective is bound to be a daunting task as the medium term performance of the economy over the past several years suggests that the ‘demonstrated growth potential’ is only about 6.5 percent.

In addition to the 8 per cent growth target, the Tenth Plan also aims at enhancement of human well being and identifies the following specific and monitorable targets for this purpose:

1. Reduction of poverty ratio by 5 percentage points by 2007 and by 15 percentage points by 2012.

2. Providing gainful and high-quality employment at least to addition to the labour- force over the tenth plan period.

3. Ail children in school by 2003; all children to complete 5 years of schooling by 2007;

4. Reduction in gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by at least 50 per cent by 2007;

5. Reduction in the decadal rate of population growth between 2001 and 2011 to 16.2 percent;

6. Increase in literacy rate to 75 per cent within the plan period;

7. Reduction of infant mortality rate to 45 per 1000 live births by 2007 and to 28 by 2012;

8. Reduction of maternal mortality ratio to 2 per 1000 live birth by 2007 and to 1 by 2012;

9. Increase in forest and tree cover to 25 per cent to 2007 and 33 per cent by 2012;

10. All villages to have sustained access to potable drinking water within the plan period;

11. Cleaning of all major polluted rivers by 2007 and other notified stretches by 2012.