The X1th five year plan was formulated by the Government of India aiming at” Inclusive growth”. A midterm appraisal of the plan to diagnose its reach and impact on the people was scheduled this year by planning commission of India. UNFPA, UNIFEM in association with National Alliance of Women and Voluntary Health Association of India organized state level consultations in all the states of India and Regional consultation meetings in five regions of India with an objective to collect feedback about the perceptions from the poor and marginalized social groups regarding delivery of different schemes which are specifically targeted to improve the quality of service.

While VHAI steered the Central Government programmes / schemes related to Health aspects, the, National Alliance of Women led the discussion on Women & Child and Minority issues. IWID being the focal point of NAWO for Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry took the lead in organizing the State level consultation in Kerala in association with its partner organisation Action Council Vellarada and co-facilitated the state level processes in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry in association with TNVHA.

The following were accomplished through the consultations

1. The feedback from the community on health, women and child and minority related programmes under the X1 the five year plan were obtained.
2. The level of knowledge of the community members on various components of the national level schemes designed for them were assessed.
3. Specific issues relating to the minority community in accessing benefits under different schemes and challenges faced by them were discussed.
4. The community level participation in the central Government programmes were assessed
5. Community perspectives on gender responsiveness of programmes/schemes were introspected.
6. Community feedbacks were synthesized and recommendations were fed into national level X1th five year plan Mid-Term Review processes.

The sharing of the reports to the planning commission members provided a scope for the improvisation in implementation of the schemes in the X1th five year plan and IWID facilitated the capturing of voices from the field.