Chapter 4: Social Sector Development: Programmes and Policies in India

Indian economy, at the time of independence, was characterised as rural and agricultural wherein the majority of people earned their livelihood from agriculture and related pursuits, based on customary and low-productive techniques. The state failed to be self-sufficient in food and raw materials despite the massive population engaged in agriculture. Thus, independent India inherited a stagnant economy, plagued with problems of deprived and decadent industrialisation, low agricultural output, low national income per capita, considerable unemployment and underemployment, and rampant poverty and deprivation. Later, post-independence, the Indian economy passed through another major crisis along with its inheritance of the said fragile economic state and was caught up in a vicious circle of poverty. India was, thus, in dire need of rapid growth and social justice for the poor masses (Kapila, 2010).