POLICIES FOR SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT:
The origin of official policies for social infrastructure development is the National Policy of Education, 1986 for the development of education and eradication of illiteracy and the National Health Policy, 2002 for achieving an acceptable standard of good health among the general population of the country. Currently, the present Government is formulating their strategies on the basis of the CMP or Common Minimum Programme, which has emphasised the social sector development. Expenditure on the various components of these sectors have also increased substantially in recent years.
It has been mentioned in the Economic Survey 2004-05 that higher levels of expenditure on the social sectors could be sustained through reprioritisation of expenditure both by the States and the Centre. It has been further admitted that availability of resources alone cannot guarantee social sector development and the efficacy of a large number of official programmes would have to be vastly improved through various measures. An efficient management and improved delivery system for these programmes are essential to effectively implement he social sector programmes through the decentralised system of Panchayati Raj Institutions with full and voluntary participation of the people. This would also ensure transparency in implementation, which would effectively check eakages in these programmes.