Women

The Constitution will be amended to provide for one-third reservations for women in the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Vidhan Sabhas and Vidhan Parishads. The Congress also proposes to increase, across the board, the number of women in government services. A concerted drive will be launched to increase the representation of women in primary schools as teachers, in the police force and in the judiciary at all levels. Special courts dealing with women-related issues will be established all over the country. A massive political campaign will be launched for ending discrimination and atrocities against women and girls and social evils through a process of education, empowerment and provision of legal rights.

The Indira Mahila Yojana will be recast in terms of the framework prepared by Shri Rajiv Gandhi on the eve of the 1989 Lok Sabha elections and launched throughout the country. The IMY is based on mahila sabhas, comprising the entire adult female population of a gram panchayat area, and provides the women of the village with a forum to present their concerns to the panchayats through the women members of the panchayat, as also to select from among themselves saathins who will interact with the administration to ensure that programmes targetted to women and children are oriented towards the priorities determined by the mahila sabha.

Special social security schemes for women working in the unorganised and informal sectors will be launched. The economic and social needs of female agricultural labour will receive the highest priority. Schemes for distributing assets like house sites and land jointly or singly in the name of women will be introduced. Special credit and micro-finance programmes for women will be introduced. Women will be given a central role in all anti-poverty programmes and in all watershed development and forestry projects. Women-headed households will be covered under special programmes.

The Congress is acutely aware of the growing population of widows in the country. They suffer from social and cultural prejudices and also suffer from many legal disadvantages. A programme for their social, economic and legal emancipation and empowerment will be introduced. The name of the mother will be made acceptable in all forms and applications. Laws to combat sexual harassment at the workplace will be made and strictly enforced.

More hostels facilities for working women and students in cities and towns will be provided.

Children and Youth

Membership of NCC will be encouraged among students. The Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS), through which nutrition is assured for children, pregnant mothers and lactating mothers, will be expanded to cover all the community development blocks in the country. The National Mid-day Meal Programme will be consolidated and based everywhere on hot, cooked meals in all elementary schools in the country, with particular emphasis on the poorer states. Laws against child labour will be strictly enforced and special educational facilities will be created in areas where child labour prevails. The Congress is committed to the rapid elimination of all forms of child labour.

The Congress believes that the sight of street children in our cities is a challenge to our collective social conscience.

A special programme will be launched to end the tragedy of street children. The congress will involve different sections of society to ensure that street children are placed in special schools, training centres, or rehabilitation centres or in social welfare homes. Strict measures will be taken against female infanticide and foeticide. Special insurance and social security schemes for the girl child among the weaker sections will be launched. A special national programme will be launched for involving school-leaving and college-leaving youth in key national tasks like literacy, rural development, legal awareness and social reforms will be launched on the fiftieth anniversary of our republic on January 26th, 2000.

Sports

India’s performance in sports at an international level has been dismal and does not do justice to our potential. In recent years, cricket has become very popular in the country. But athletics, football, hockey and other games continue to languish and do not generate the same interest and enthusiasm.

It will also tap natural talent, particularly in tribal areas. Infrastructure for sports in every district will be upgraded, specific-sporting academies will be set up at the national and state levels and world-class training facilities will be provided with easy access. A Benevolent Fund to look after the welfare and well being of outstanding sports persons will also be established.

Fiscal Discipline

India just cannot sustain the present levels of revenue deficit and fiscal deficit of both the Centre and the states. It is both the quantity and the quality of the deficits that are coming in the way of faster growth and eroding the capacity of governments to enhance social investments in a significant manner. The revenue deficit will be phased out over the next three to four years and the combined fiscal deficit of the Centre and the states will be stabilised at a level below 4% of GDP. The feasibility of a Constitutional ceiling on the growth of public debt will be actively explored. A Fiscal Responsibility Act to introduce and sustain fiscal discipline in a transparent manner will be introduced. Fiscal discipline will not be at the cost of investment in essential social and physical infrastructure.

Expenditure management will receive the highest priority and a high-level Expenditure Management Commission will be set up to bring about a national consensus on the scopenature, level and growth of public expenditures, including implicit and explicit subsidies that are now at an unsustainable level of around 14-15% of GDP. The Congress believes that the structure of government expenditure at both the Central and state levels has to undergo a fundamental reorientation in order to enhance investments in education, health, nutrition, irrigation, agriculture and other essential sectors.

Tax reforms will be continued. The tax-GDP ratio must be brought up to at least 18% over the next five years. Measures will be taken to enlarge the tax base. Strict action will be taken against tax evaders. A new and simplified Direct Taxes Act will be made public for discussion before its introduction. There will be stability in direct tax rates.

The Congress will work closely with states to bring about fiscal reorientation. Incentives will be built into the system of fiscal transfers so as to encourage restructuring of state finances in favour of investment in the social and physical infrastructure sectors.

India is one giant common market and must function as one. Unfortunately, there are still many fiscal and other barriers, which are preventing the emergence of a truly national common market. These barriers will be eliminated in consultation with state governments. The objective will be to move towards a system of value-added taxation (VAT) and uniform rules for the treatment of interstate trade. VAT will be accompanied by a major simplification of the rate structure. The Congress is fully committed to the introduction of a VAT in the next four to five years and for this purpose it will continue to work in a spirit of constructive co-operation with all states.

Price Stability

The Congress believes that in a country like India, the most effective anti-poverty measures that any government can and must take is to control inflation and also to tame inflationary expectations. Anti-inflationary strageties will be the cornerstone of the Congress’s economic policies.

The Congress pledges to keep the consumer prices of all essential commodities under control at all times. 1998 witnessed the most unprecedented increase in the prices of essential food items due to the totally insensitive policies of the BJP government. Strict action will be taken against black-marketers, speculators and hoarders. Changes will be brought about in the Essential Commodities Act to make it a more effective instrument of price control. A Cabinet Committee on Inflation Control will be set up and this would monitor the price situation on at least a weekly basis.

Industry

Industry has to be growing on a sustained basis at a minimum of 10-12% per year if overall economic growth and employment objectives are to be achieved. The performance had been seen during the mid-1990s when the Congress was in power. A special effort is now required to revive the Indian manufacturing industry in particular through new investments and new technologies. A broad-based National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council will be set up to provide a focus for such an endeavour and to provide an institutional mechanism for a policy dialogue on issues of particular concern to the manufacturing sector.

A new, modern forward-looking Companies Act and a new Foreign Exchange Management Act will be brought into force. Immediate steps will be taken to restore the health of the capital markets so that Indian companies can raise equity capital. Incentives to boost private investment will be introduced and all measures to bring down real rates of interest in the neighbourhood of 3-5% will be taken.

A new competition law will be enacted to ensure that competition is free and fair and restrictive, unfair, monopolistic trade and business practices are kept in complete check. While trade liberalisation will continue, the anti-dumping machinery will be made more effective and timely. Industry will be supported to cope effectively with the challenges posed by different WTO agreements. This is particularly the case in the textile and pharmaceutical industries. The textile industry, in particular, has to be geared up for the abolition of quantitative restrictions on imports by India by the year 2003 and for the abolition of all important quotas in the developed countries by the year 2005.

The agro-processing industry will be given a special boost through appropriate fiscal, technological and investment policies. The emergence of Indian multinationals and Indian brands will be actively encouraged and supported. The procedures for overseas investments by Indian firms for acquisitions will be further liberalised.

Small-scale industry will be freed from bureaucratic harassment. Inspections will be reduced to the minimum, rationalised and implemented without nepotism and corruption. In clusters of small-scale industries, voluntary and self-regulation will, where possible, be introduced. Special bank facilities in the major clusters of small-scale industry will be created and the availability of working capital and venture capital for small enterprises will be expanded. Complementarily between large, medium and small industry will be fostered through forward-looking and pragmatic investment and technology policies. The policy of small-scale reservation will be kept under constant review especially where there is a need to accelerate exports and introduce new technology. Where free imports are allowed and quantitative restrictions on imports are being removed, the case for imposing any form of restrictions on domestic production needs review.

Issues relating to corporate governance involving a concern for all major stakeholder interests will be dealt with on a priority basis. The take-over code will be implemented in a transparent manner. All support will be given to Indian industry in its efforts to restructure, consolidate and meet the challenges of changing economic circumstances.

A new law will be made to deal effectively with industrial sickness so that the interests of labour are fully protected and industrialists do not run away from their legal obligations by taking recourse to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFT). The BIFR itself will be completely revamped and a new Sick Industries Companies Act, to replace the SICA of 1987, will be introduced with a view to facilitating quick restructuring and industrial revival..