obviously reality. Over the last decade, it has become apparent that without addressing women as a specific concern, no public policy, least of all the family planning programme, will succeed. So planners and policy-makers now resort to a simple device: every policy statement makes a full-throated avowal of addressing women's problems as a priority concern. The fact that every policy made by the state is only creating greater burdens for women and is aggravating the societal tensions which sharpen gender- discrimination and increase gender disparity is completely ignored.